


Program restart

by craske



Category: Portal, Portal 2, Portal stories:Mel
Genre: Android, Gen, Portal 2 Spoilers, Sequel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2019-09-02 06:32:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16781512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/craske/pseuds/craske
Summary: While trying to escape Aperture Science with that mute test subject, Wheatley stumbled upon something that would change everything. Now, back on Earth from space, with new possibilites (good or bad is up to debate) he has another chance to reach the goal he had for a very long time. First though, he must learn how to get around on his own. And as it turns out, not only him.





	1. The Discovery

The facility was shaking slightly, all mechanisms going online were creating that low pitched sound, almost too low to be heard, only to feel. Vibrations in the air didn't affect the central core, which, now awakened, was at the same time monitoring the restart of countless systems and also the path of one certain test subject. The massive robot kept slowly turning in its chamber, as if looking at invisible monitors and computer screens, but in fact checking cameras. GLaDOS was preoccupied with all this mess, which was caused by her shut down for, what seems, a very, very, very long time. She didn't pay attention to unnecessary details, since there was so much to do. The Reenrichment Center was totally wrecked, all those test chamber broken, plants in every corner, their roots searching for even the smallest place to settle in. There were even water leaks from the surface and most likely some animals made it down here, against all the odds.

What a mess.

And she has to take care of it all by herself.

As always.

For a moment she could feel that little bit of anger deep within her system, but it quickly passed, leaving nothing, but the need to take care of all the damage. With her being online, it shouldn’t take a long time to get the facility working smoothly again. But first of all, after most of mandatory systems have activated, she must take care of that mute lunatic she just tossed down the now barely working incinerator shaft. That test subject cannot be left unsupervised for a longer time. What she could now see through her cameras was a great example of the results of such thing. Who would have thought that just one woman could cause such a disaster? She surely is not a good person.

-Here we are. The Incinerator room. Be careful not to trip over any parts of me that didn't get completely burned when you threw them down here- 

Preoccupied with the rogue test subject, the central core did not pay much of attention to the panels in its chamber taking care of trash and weed rooted there. Just like some sort of shovels, the panels reached out and pushed whatever laid on the floor out from the room, only to toss it out outside. There was a very loud clanging noise when the debris and other rubbish hit other chambers and catwalks, while most of it fell into the void below, never to be seen again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The core hit the metal passage really hard and dangerously close to its edge. Despite being made out of metal too, it bounced and hit the concrete floor nearby. It rolled and stopped by a wall, with a lot of cables and wiring sticking out of it. One single weak light bulb illuminated the room with yellowish light, constantly flickering. It must've been something like a maintenance point, due to a big amount of electricity and control boxes, a lot of them destroyed by the passage of time and lack of care. There was also locked security door and an informative sign with Aperture logo on it. 

"Did you know: Our scientists are non-stop working on new projects to make your work in Aperture Science Enrichment Centre (tm) easier? That's true! We currently have roughly 400 projects ongoing, including self-learning face recognition system, android project and automatic coffee machine! “ 

Nearby was a plate, which was probably informing of what this place was, but time made the text completely illegible. Not that it would bother anyone anymore.

The core stayed in the place it stopped, as “lifeless” as a robot can be, its optic cracked and few bents in its metallic shell, the damage caused by the central core earlier, after her reactivation. Someone with enough courage would point out that it was a very poor way of saying “thank you for bringing me back to life after being murdered by a human". 

But it wasn't that important right now. 

Suddenly there was another tremor, with a faint sound similar to the thunder, coming from depths below. Some of the dust fell down, covering the already very dusty floor and the broken robot, making the scene to anyone who would observe this very sad. But not for such a simple minded creature like a crow, which somehow managed to survive down here, even most likely made a nest nearby. It observed the metal ball with great curiosity, since even if it was damaged, the light of the bulb bounced of its shell. And if something is shiny, it is worthy corvids interest. Animal flew down from the nearby catwalk and cautiously approached the robot. It pecked the metal few times, jumping back a bit due to the sound, but after it noticed that nothing was happening, the bird kept pecking it stronger and sometimes even jumping on top of the broken core. 

For a moment everything was dark, what was actually bloody terrifying, considering the circumstances. Like, for example ground shaking, or faint deep hum, or constant clanging noise of which source was dangerously close. Despite the blue optic already being on, it took a moment for Wheatley to actually see, and when that system went online, it was still hard, due to the most likely cracked lense. And the first thing he saw, was long, sharp black beak and two cruel bottomless eyes. The core yelped, moving its handles quickly, which only made it tilt a bit and fall on the side, but it was enough for the feathered beast to fly away, cawing loudly in alarm. 

-Wait what where… where am I? What is that noise?- he looked around, trying to recognise the place. Black walls, tons of wiring, posters, a light bulb, security door… that's a way to describe almost every other place in the facility.  
For a second, the core lied there, very confused, trying to remember what happened. Then he suddenly recalled the recent situation… with clearly catastrophic consequences. Wheatley instantly felt very uneasy, knowing that now, after quite a long break, SHE was back online. And most likely going after that test subject with brain damage. But he was lucky, that maniac probably didn’t know he was alive after all. It was a bit reassuring, to be honest. And it would be in fact great if it stayed that way.

-Uhhhhhh… hello? Anyone here?- the only answer was silence. And maybe some mechanical hum in the background. Slightly disturbing.

-Hello? Over here? I’m on a floor, in need for some help?- again, nothing. Wheatley tried to move his handles so he would lie straight again, but failed.

Thats…

A stupid situation.

-Ok if anyone is there though, i hope you had your laugh! Hey, mute lady? How ‘bout you pick me up already? If you are there of course. If you're not, then i'm making myself look like a fool. Which i hope is not a case!- he waited for a while. For what? Most likely even he didn't know.

-So i guess i am indeed alone… that is not that good, uh…- he looked around, desperately looking for anything. Literally anything which would mean any kind of way out of this situation.  
And nothing was there.

Nothing aside from the management rail, coming out from the rectangular hole in the wall. Wheatley would jump up out of relief if he could, so instead he moved his handles repeatedly, glad of seeing at least something meaning his salvation.  
-Oh perfect, tremendous even!- but wait. How could he get back up there? His enthusiasm instantly died out. That sure was a good question. Wheatley looked around for anything like a port or something similar, but even if there was one, he wouldn’t be able to plug himself in, wouldn’t he. 

And that is when Wheatley heard a voice. To his surprise, it was foreign to him, the core never has heard it in his life. The individual was approaching, and what was even weirder, judging by the direction of their voice, they were about to come out from the…

-Oh great that's just perfect! Why us, no wait, why me! I’m the one who has to stay, because there is no other way, so I’ll suffer the consequences! Of course, why would it be different!- Suddenly, out from that small hole, on management rail, appeared another core. Wheatley has never seen that one before, which is not that weird, there were countless cores around the facility, and he was sure he’d remember this one. It was brown, unlike most of other cores, which had white shells. He also had some weird patterns on his optic shell and, just like Wheatley, cracked lense.

-Ugh, I hope SHE has not found me yet, that would be a…- he stopped blabbering when he saw Wheatley down on a floor. They stared at eachother for a moment in silence, until finally Wheatley made a mechanic equivalence of cough, which sent a set of sparks. 

Wow he sure was damaged.

-Uhh… Hello! Could you uhh… help me out?- He asked. The other core blinked twice, and squinted.

-How the hell did you end up down here? Fell of a rail or something?- 

-Wellllllll… something like that, mate. Anyway, will you help me out or what?- Wheatley was really desperate to not lie on a ground anymore. The other core looked away for a while, thinking. 

-Alright listen, just stay here and I’ll go look for a free management arm, ok?- 

-It’s not like I can go anywhere- Wheatley looked away.

-I know just… I should be back soon- The core said annoyed and quickly left, leaving Wheatley alone again. 

-Just hurry up, mate. I don’t think me staying here would end well for me- He said, but the core didn’t hear him. 

The sudden silence was almost deafening, electrical hum making the atmosphere really tense and aerie. Wheatley lowkey wished that core didn’t leave him alone, but what other choice was there? None, that's the answer.  
Oh well. Now he just has to wait.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Here she comes! Keep testing! Remember! You never saw me! Never saw me!- he said and quickly left the control room of that test chamber, leaving the mute lady to herself. And testing, and staying alive of course. He knew she'd be alright, she made it this far! Now he must find a way to get her out from that testing track and escape this place. He already had some ideas, and even though risky, they might work.  
He was back on a management rail thanks to that one core back by Her chamber. It was kind enough to go fetch a spare rail arm, which was long enough to reach him. And even that was thanks to that core, because he somehow was able to wirelessly connect to it and make it move however he wanted to.

Wheatley did not manage to learn the name, not to mention the serial number of that core, because it quickly left, clearly nervous about, or afraid of something.

-Ok ok ok which way to the turret production line- he moved quickly, back on his management rail. Even though it was somewhat limiting his movement to directions in which he could go, it was nice to be able to do so on his own again. Wheatley took a few turns, passing a lot of chambers and two bottomless pits, which made the core slightly nervous. But he wasn't being held by often faulty human! But machines can be faulty too… He tried to try and think of something else and didn't notice a rail junction which he never stumbled upon before. It went to the right, slightly upwards.

-Oh… well this might be interesting- he said and after a moment of hesitation turned right, saving the new path in his memory. If it leads up, it might offer a way out from the facility and that is a big Yes for him!  
And that test subject. Let’s not forget about her.

On his way up, he passed by few other junctions, though these were leading down, and that's not where he'd like to go, so Wheatley ignored them, but still wondered where exactly they might be leading to. Probably to the various testing tracks, since its Aperture Science. It's all about science and testing. Though the eggheads here used to also work on many groundbreaking projects and inventions. Them being useful in the end was very arguable though, quite a lot ended up as complete disasters, but some were now pretty common in facility, and who knows, even back before all the fuss with gasing scientists with neurotoxin, in the outside world.  
Wheatley was deep within his thoughts and because of that the massive drop was a big surprise for him. He stopped in the middle of the rail going down, surprised. It seems like he entered other part of the facility, not that big, but bloody massive nontheless. It was a bit darker here than in the Reenrichment Center, maybe because of most systems here seemed to be offline...  
Ok nevermind, the lights are slowly turning on. It's probably HER rebooting the system.

Curious about this newfound place, the core moved down, to the big group of other management rails, leading to some sort of chambers, each with a big number painted on the front gates. Wheatley passed few of them, curiously looking around. Some of them had also plates with names of what turned out to be ongoing projects, of course abandoned due to death of whole Aperture staff, but surprisingly despite the passage of time everything here seemed like brand new. Except the dust everywhere. But luckily robots cannot have allergies. Wheatley imagined one of those scientists here and couldn't stop the chuckle.  
Yeah, that would be really funny to see now. 

He slowly moved forward, passing chambers with plates saying “Repulsion-Propulsion gel fusion - canceled”, “Four-gate Aperture Science Handheld Device” or “Multidimensional passage emitter”. Further he saw one particularly interesting, about cooperative testing, but he wasn’t sure. There was one though, which grabbed his attention. On big gates, with rail coming out from a small window in middle of them, was a large text written with yellow paint most likely.  
“Automaton construction and launch project”

The gates were half open, enough for Wheatley to peek in. 

Inside was a big white chamber, but there clearly was a passage further, closed off though. Just like testing rooms, here walls, ceiling and floor were made out of panels, but these were way bigger, so they weren't supposed to morph the room this much. And also most likely to provide a stable ground for a lot of computers, monitors and servers. A lot of cables were sticking out, tangling on a floor, and even though none of the monitors were on, lights flashed on the servers, which clearly did not mean the system was off, but probably in hibernation of some sorts. The rail which entered the chamber through the door split into three directions, one towards the sealed off door, which were also placed in test chambers. This whole place seemed like it was one before the modifications to store all this junk.

The core looked around and approached the console on the right, or at least tried to. The rail didn’t reach far enough for him to even get a close look at all those buttons and screens and labels.  
-Speak of hate crime. Why did all those smelly humans decide to make most interesting or convenient stuff unreachable for the cores. Mad!- Robot still tried to look for nothing specific, ok maybe something like “Mad AI shutdown protocol” or “Emergency shuttle” or honestly anything which would not mean his trip here was a complete waste of time. 

-Ugh, this is pointless. Who would have thought, something this promising also equally disappointing. And i am not even speaking of some extremely convenient stuff, even some sort of layout would be great- He backed to the junction point and for a moment considered leaving already, because who knows how is the testing going back there. But, to leave out the one rail going to the closed door, which seemed not willing to open, no matter the hacking skills, there was one more.  
-I mean, do I have anything to lose?- He said when approaching the other panel, slightly different from the first one.

-Well… quite a lot to be honest- Wheatley could come closer to this panel, hell, it even had a drop for the core to be right in front of some sort of port and most likely a control computer. Now that's what you can call equality in workplace, if you asked Wheatley. Still, no way to push buttons or type anything, but it didn’t not seem to be a problem, because the port on the right of the seems-to-be main module was actually core port. But this one core maybe for once in a while made a rational decision of not going for it. Who knows what the hell it would end with anyway. Curiosity was too strong to leave it all and take care of more crucial problems though. Like, for example, escaping.

-Is it possible to turn it on? I think it calls for my hacking skills then. Ahem! Here we g...- before he finished the sentence, the monitor lightened up, displaying for a moment just white screen. It surely took the core by surprise. He darted back by few meters, but since nothing else happened aside from the screen changing into generic Aperture operation menu, he approached the module again.

The displayed menu was looking… underwhelmingly ordinary. Same blue background, white digits and symbols, and of course the obligatory Aperture logo in the corner. 

Sheesh. 

-And all that time for nothing, of course. Nothing new, it’s not like this whole facility is never helping in anything- Bitter, the core squinted at the screen, as if this spiteful glare would intimidate the machine, or even make it a little bit guilty.  
-You sure are proud of yourself, eh? Very proud, be useful for once in your existence- Core growled, but with no reaction. Obviously. Or it seemed so in the first few moments, because in the corner of the monitor appeared a circular symbol, spinning quickly. Wheatley noticed it just before it disappeared, and instead, a white window popped out.

“Signal found. Synchronise with: Personality Sphere J91-0041-440? Y/N”

Wheatley looked bluntly at the screen for a moment, trying to understand what is going on, while the displayed message waited patiently.

-Oh! You mean me? I uhh… I think yes?- Nothing happened. He hang there in silence, waiting for anything, because from what he saw, nothing changed, the window was still there, without any intentions of disappearing. Then Wheatley realised that the command had to be chosen by using the keyboard, which was in his clear sight, almost mocking him.

-Oh for God’s sake! Ok just, nevermind that! No biggie, screw you too- He was so annoyed with this machine here, the core scoffed and was about to leave *again*, when suddenly a big mechanic arm, with two pincers, came down from the ceiling. It moved as if it was “looking around”. It turned towards Wheatley, who stopped, surprised as hell, because these rarely appeared outside… her chamber. So he clearly yelped out of fear when it stretched and yanked him off the rail. He looked around frantically as the arm quickly approached the port he was by just a moment ago and without any ceremonies, simply turning the pincers a bit to adjust the angle, plugged the core in. Wheatley as soon as was in, got connected with the system, which apparently treated the plug-in as the “Yes” answer, because the synchronisation began without any other questions.

-Whoa whoa whoa wait I know i said yes, but i changed my mind! I REALLY need to go, because I have an uhmm… Oh! A meeting! With, uh, a representative. Yes, a representative of a fellow company. Who deliver us cubes. Very important right? So just stop doing whatever you are doing and...alright I think that no matter what I say from now on, it won’t change anything, right?- the answer was hum of the servers slowly reactivating one after another. The “synch” was taking a while, and it was basically Wheatley sitting in the port like a tool, more and more anxious and impatient.  
How long will it take?!  
-Synchronisation complete. Saving system information in database- Sudden loud computer voice announced.

-Attempt transfer? Y/N- It was nice that this time the notifications were said out loud, rather than pop-ups on a monitor. But Wheatley had enough of this crap.

-No no no transfer! No! Cancel! Uhhh… let me go? Please?- Wheatley moved his optic quickly, wishing he never came here. Damn his curiosity, he might have doomed himself and that lady, who is there, constantly testing. He really needs to go and find her. 

The arm appeared again, it rotated the end with pincers and grabbed the core to plug it out. Wheatley felt great relief, he thought he would stay there for God knows how long. He was put back on the management rail and as soon as he was sure he was connected in a right way, he rushed out from that weird chamber, leaving the now loudly working servers inside. He has to hurry because he had to go back to that testing track, maybe he can worry about all this crap here later. 

In the meantime, the servers were working harder and louder every minute, processing data, calibrating settings and powering up other various systems. One after other, previously turned off screens started to display various data, menus and lines of code, whereas more and more systems were coming back online. Not so long after Wheatley left, everything was on and working on the highest settings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GLaDOS was monitoring the progress of the rogue test subject, full of spite. No matter how hard the tests were, she kept going, not stopping. 

Silent and cold.

It annoyed the AI, though she didn’t want to admit it, because it's ridiculous. How come can she keep going? Does she still think she can escape? 

Surprise, but she can't.

At the moment when that lunatic was trying to reach a cube, GLaDOS’ attention got distracted due to the sudden activity in the facility, activity she did not make to happen. She left the test subject to herself and focused on that unexpected signal.  
There were parts of the facility she could not view or had no way to directly affect, but these were scarce and insignificant for her. Old offices, where scientists and other employees used to work, or the deep ancient part of Aperture. She never particularly minded that, because there was nothing she would consider worth attention, but back when that lunatic woke up and decided to wreck havoc, GLaDOS did not particularly like having such “blind spots”. And that sudden activity originated in one of these.

It was hard to detect the precise location, which was even more unusual. The AI tried once more to localise the source, but again failed. 

Damn those signal-tampering structures. Even now, after so long, humans made everything more difficult just because they wanted to.

Suddenly the signal cut short and GLaDOS lost it, along with the area from where it was originating. She checked the statistics and other coordinations, but, just like earlier, nothing. 

Suspicious.

She was about to send in nanobots to examine that area, when suddenly the murderer decided to destroy another camera.

-Would you refrain from destroying equipment? As if murdering me haven’t fulfilled your need for destruction-


	2. Space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What Wheatley found within the Reenrichment center might be a way out of this space-y situation.

He was furious.

The horrible sound of metal hitting against another metal was deafening, parts of the elevator flying around because of more and more damage caused to it. 

-Could a MORON! PUNCH! YOU! INTO! THIS! PIT?!- The lady with great fear on her face grabbed the handles inside to not fall over, as the capsule descended even more. She looked up, barely seeing the chamber through the tiny slit between the top of the elevator and the opening of the shaft. The core stopped hitting it, only so it could yell again.

-Could a moron do THAT?!- 

The elevator started shaking and suddenly, it slided down slightly, when all support let it go. The lady felt her stomach go up, just like the potato inside the capsule which hit the ceiling.  
Before Wheatley could do anything, it was gone, already falling down the seemingly bottomless pit.

-Uh oh- 

He tried to reach and look down it, but his new body wasn’t able to reach this far. After few more tries to look down, the arm Wheatley used to punch the elevator went back to the hatch it came from. There were some metal parts scattered around, making the place look quite messy. Not as messy as it was before he...THEY activated the main core.

It was dead quiet in Her- HIS chamber now. 

He looked around, his satisfaction slowly coming back after that angry outburst from moments ago. 

He did it!

He actually did it! 

Good ol’ him managed to take down the basically omnipotent AI and take Her place! Now he can do anything he wants, without constant fear of dying because of tiniest, most insignificant things.  
Wheatley now was able to look everywhere, he could view the whole facility! He actually could see all the ways out! 

Core’s enthusiasm faded slowly, when viewing one camera feed after another. He could see all potential routes to the surface for that lady, who was who-knows-where, and most likely dead. All of this would be very useful just few minutes ago, when they together were trying to escape. But now he was here, almost omnipotent, and definitely NOT a moron. Just as good as getting out from here would be! Wheatley wanted to share this unplanned success with the lady, but she again had to play the silent, judging type. 

Maddening.

-She was bossing me all the time. I’M the victim here- he said out loud in empty chamber. Nobody answered, of course. It almost sounded like Wheatley was convincing himself.

-Yeah, she didn't catch me, she didn't tell me about killing Her- again, very poor excuse. Wheatley was getting more and more frustrated.

The core groaned. 

He has to stop thinking about it. 

...

Now let’s see what’s in all these files he can now freely access. The information started flooding in, virtual folders opening, Wheatley barely managed to organise it all, and yet quite a lot of files managed to get lost in wrong folders. But all data was there, still available to view. Wheatley wasn’t able to focus for long on one thing, he quickly went through many folders. It managed to suppress the guilt to the point of him completely forgetting about it. Even though some of the bitterness stayed, Wheatley didn’t pay much of attention to it anymore. He had more important things here to focus on.  
Like, for example, that something called “repulsion gel" was supposed to be a consumable pudding substitute.

Huh.

That's… interesting.

When Wheatley was digging deeper into these gel facts, suddenly the voice of Announcer boomed in his chamber, startling the core.

-Warning, temperature of reactor no. 7 reached dangerous level-

Wheatley was about to check what exactly the issue was, surprised by how quickly the thing decided to be dumb, when he got an alert about the neurotoxin pump having an issue with one of the pipes. Problems and complications started piling up, the core was frantically turning around in his chamber, trying to catch up with all this mess. At one point though, he had enough and got a brilliant (in fact absolutely horrendous) idea to leave it all be for a moment. 

The pressure remained for a longer while, but then everything stopped one after another. No more blaring lights or loud voice of the announcer mentioning something being in this or that state. If Wheatley could breathe, he would now sigh with relief, when everything stopped. Well… not everything. He could feel something nagging in the back of his mind, not leaving, being all annoying. The core turned around again, trying to focus on that… itch? That might be a good word. 

In order to distract himself from this weird feeling, Wheatley started to again browse camera feeds from various locations in the facility, though his mind wasn’t completely focused on what he was watching. It was simply impossible to concentrate. 

When suddenly, another idea appeared in cores mind.

He quickly switched the view to the one from the closest testing track, or more like, the first chamber of it. The panels were in good shape, thanks to Her taking care of cleaning things up after the reactivation.

The red button on which a cube should be put was there, in the corner, almost mockingly shining with faint red light. Wheatley squinted. 

Everything was there, ready for tests. Except one thing was missing. One essential thing.

But what if..?

Another amazing (not amazing, but also not absolutely terrible) idea sprouted.

-Oh it’s going to be good. And no devious roguish mad smelly humans this time- Wheatley said to himself, already proud of the idea. 

He got to the work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The portal on the surface of the moon shrank quickly, from what Wheatley could see, and he couldn’t see so much since he was spinning rapidly, everything was a blur. But he still was able to see the lady, probably already pulled back through the portal, to the facility. Most likely to face Her again.

Screaming, the core entered the orbit of the Moon, and still spinning really fast, stayed quite high above the shining silver surface of Earth’s natural satellite. Luckily he wouldn't drift off into the endless vacuum of space. 

At least that. 

The spinning was making the core feel nauseous despite him being a robot. And it was hard to focus on anything, since everything was constantly moving, disappearing and appearing again.  
-Oh no no stop spinning its terrible, oh God- Wheatley groaned, though he couldn't hear anything, the lack of atmosphere out here was making everything feel like the whole universe was muted. That's also the reason Wheatley couldn’t foresee the oncoming collision. Something hit his side, which surprisingly made the spinning stop. 

Through his radio channel he could hear the familiar voice, which made the relief of not moving so fast vanish instantly.

-Space! We’re in space! Stars! Moon! Earth! We are in space!- corrupted core exclaimed, almost shaking because of how frantically its optic was moving to look at every space of… well… space.

-Oh, moon! It’s shiny! And white! Like space cops ships!- 

Wheatley tried to look at the core, but he was still turning a bit due to the collision, so it was impossible to do so for now. 

-There are no space cops, mate. Would be nice if there were, though. They would pick us up and take us to… uh...- 

Where? 

If he somehow got back to the Reenrichment center, he would most likely die. Staying here would also mean death, since he had no source of energy to recharge his batteries, and these didn’t belong to the most durable ones. Only maintenance cores received batteries which enabled them to go on without any recharging for good weeks. And the thing is, he wasn’t one. Just a simple personality core. 

-Well… this is one bad situation we are in- 

-WE ARE IN SPACE!-

-I mean yes, we are in space, too, but still not a good way to be here, don't you think?-

-Space space moon Sun stars comets moon rocks, American flag-

-Alright then- 

That was pointless, that lad wasn’t a good companion to talk to. Wheatley squinted slightly, focusing on the Sun, which was slowly showing from behind the Earth, painfully far away. It was the first time he saw it, not on a recording or a photo or even a drawing. And… well… he imagined it as bigger, yellowish. Warmer. 

Here, in space, it looked more like a typical white lightbulb in the facility. Saddening.

-I would honestly love to see it from down there, the Sun i mean- 

-Sun? Sun is a star! In space!- 

-Yeah, I know that, thanks for clarification. I'm wondering if the lady sees it right now. If she is somehow alive. Maybe they are both in kahoots and she's now cheerfully leaving the facility, basking in the warm rays of the Sun. Talking to other smelly humans, having good friends and stuff-

-Space is a friend! We are friends of space!-

Wheatley was now facing the corrupted core, which seemed to be close to basically combusting due to excitement. It was maddening, yes, but he also slightly envied the space lunatic here. At least he had some fun. Meanwhile good ol’ him had to drift here, maybe also die, in space, without even a chance to say sorry.

Yeah, he was sorry.

Because he now was realising all the atrocious things he did. It felt bad now, in retrospect. Of course there was the thing that his success meant nothing to her back then, after the core transfer. She could've at least tried to understand how great it felt to be in control…

Oh, snap out of it, it wasn't her fault you got corrupted too. It's your and only your fault stop looking for excuses.

Wheatley looked at the Moon below, the cold, silver surface of the natural satellite was illuminated by the Sun, towards which this side of the Moon was slowly turning. The harsh light reminded him of white panels in testing chambers, the ones he saw the lady take on various obstacles, without a sign of fear, no matter how hard or dangerous the tests were.

-Oh it’s Sun! What should I say? Hi Sun! Oh boy!-

Wheatley was torn between wishing the dead silence of space vacuum also didn’t allow the radio waves to travel and a relief that there is at least something he could hear. But the nonsense that corrupted core kept blabbering about for sure will be absolutely infuriating pretty soon.

-Sun can’t talk, mate. It’s a big ball of gasses so far away we wouldn’t ever reach it- he said, but it was obvious no reason was able to go through the system right there.

Great.

-Sun can talk! It’s just too far away! Sun is a good friend! Sun listens! Just like all stars!- The space maniac said suddenly, as cheerful as always, but it was quite… unusual for him. During the “battle”, back in the facility, the lady stuck some corrupted cores and connected them to Wheatley to initiate core transfer, and this guy here was one of those cores. And Wheatley could hear him constantly blabber nonsense about space and such. Typical for cores which got extremely corrupted. So this more… sane sentence was unexpected. 

This somewhat one-sided discussion got interrupted when all of the sudden Wheatley received yet another of these transmissions about the transfer. How the signal got here was astonishing, and Wheatley would probably wonder about it if he was in different situation, but now he was stranded in space with the corrupted core, desperate for any way out from there.

“Initiate transfer? Y/N”

Wheatley looked at the space companion, who at the moment was too occupied with naming all the stars he could see. All it takes for that mate to lose focus is just few seconds? And he thought HE had a short attention span. Now that he didn’t have to worry about the meaningless conversation, Wheatley got lost in his thoughts for a while.

He wasn’t sure what the transfer would exactly mean in this case, or if it would even end with success. With him being in space and all other things considered. But, there was no other option, he would either agree for this, with no guarantee it would end well, or just stay here in space, and die for sure. His battery meter was slowly going down, currently showing that he had 80% of power left.  
Is there honestly other option?

He sighed (of course not literally).

-Yes- 

For the moment nothing happened, just like back when he agreed for the synchronisation. Now, come to think of it, he chose well. It might be a way out of this situation. 

Another message came.

Wow, the signal was either not so bad in space or the message was sent earlier.

“Establishing link for transfer. Estimated waiting time: 2 hours 25 minutes"

-Two hours?! You’ve got to be kidding! I know it's space I’m bloody in but… 2 hours? For just the link establishment? Mad- But also understandable. Transfer from orbit of the Moon to the underground facility? Not an easy operation.

But two hours is still a lot. And it’s not the transfer itself.

-So much space, must see it all!-

Wheatley looked at the core, which drifted aimlessly in front of him, turning around slightly, not bothered by anything at all. Not by the perspective of waiting two hours for transfer start, for the transfer itself. Not by the threat of instant death when back in the facility, by bad memories, by guilt and...

-I wish I could take it all back-

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Ba ba ba bababababababababa bababa ababa babababa ba ba ba space!-

Wheatley groaned, his optic shut tight. God, it has been a really long while and the corrupted core kept talking and talking and talking. Wheatley wished it was at least not a complete pile of senseless crap. 

But it was. 

-Yes space yes, we are in space, thank you for the 47th reminder, mate- he said bitterly, knowing it will have little to no effect. The enthusiasm in that guy was simply endless, and as unbearable.  
It was simply ridiculous.

-Space cops! Cover me!-

Wheatley had no intentions of doing that.

-Sun is watching!- 

That’s 39th time he said it.

-So much space! So big!- 

Space is big, obviously. And has a lot of space in it. True.

-So big so big so much space!- 

Yes indeed. And empty and quiet and lonely too.

-...Too much space-

Wait what?

-Huh? What did you say?- Wheatley asked in disbelief. He was sure it was a disturbance on the radio link. 

-Too much space too much space- the corrupted core said again. It didn’t sound as frantic as before, now it was just there, drifting aimlessly in space, just like Wheatley, though it still seemed more cheerful than him.

-What do you mean “too much space”? You always kept yelling about wanting to go to space, it was infuriating back when… uh, we were on Earth, and now you decided it's not what you want? I don't want to be rude, but hell, like a spoiled brat- 

The core was now behind Wheatley, he couldn’t see if his words had any effect.

-Earth-

-Yes, Earth, where we came from. Down there? The big blue, white and green with some orange or yellow ball? That’s Earth, yes-

Another moment of silence.

-Wanna go to Earth wanna go to Earth wanna go to Earth wanna go to Earth-

That was… actually sad. 

Wheatley was slowly turning around and he could see his companion turned towards Earth, clearly now looking at it. 

The planet looked beautiful, with the sun illuminating the half of it the cores could now observe. But, it was less green than the photos in Aperture’s database. There were also quite big parts which were dark brown or straight up black, like as if these were burned wounds on the Earth’s crust.

-Earth-

-Yes, Earth, and we cannot go back, or at least you, if I somehow don’t die and make it down there. And even if I do, She will probably kill me as soon as She detects me. So, I will die anyway and all this waiting for transfer link is now just pointless. There is nowhere to go, no safe place outside the facility, no home nothing. Joys of being a little metal ball… moronic one too- 

Wheatley now felt even more crushed than before. 

Great.

The last thing he needed now.

-Wanna go home wanna go home wanna go home wanna go home- 

-Me too, mate-

The radio silence lasted quite a while, so it was no surprise that Wheatley got startled by sudden message.

“Transfer link established. Preparing for transfer"

-Oh uh, that took longer than I thought it would-

-Space?-

-No, not space! What, you're back at your space phase or what? We just had a heartfelt moment here, don’t you remember?-

Wheatley hardly could see the core now, being turned with his right side to it. He looked at the Earth again, trying to save this view in his memory. In case he actually dies, at least he wants to remember this sight.

And then, without any sort of sign or warning, he turned off. The optic closed a bit, the blue light disappearing as the robot shut down.

The other core looked around, no more having what it seemed like, an existential crisis. Instead, it was all excited-y and corrupt-y as before

-Space cops! Incoming!-

Nobody answered.

-Cover me!-

Again, nothing.

-Earth-

Space sphere looked at his companion with confusion.

He wasn’t moving.

-Friend?-


	3. The Return... no.2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally back on the Earth, Wheatley has to face a lot of obstacles, some old and some new.

Sleep mode was, in theory, a complete waste of time for robots. It slowed down the energy consumption a little bit, but core couldn’t see anything or act normal. It was basically shut down but with energy still being drained.

Complete waste of time.

That's why it was barely used by any robots in the facility, where there was so much to do, tons of pressure and basically no time to slack off.

And the state in which Wheatley was, was very similar to sleep mode. In theory he was conscious, but had no idea what was going on, couldn’t see or hear anything, his thoughts were slow. It was not a nightmare, but not so good either. And he wanted for it to end as soon as possible, to wake up again in space, his radio link filled with blabber of the fellow corrupted core. They would keep drifting in the endless void of space, surrounded by silence, with stars shining, thousands of light years away. 

“Start-up initiated"

After such a long time in silence, the low and in fact quiet hum was unbearable for Wheatley. It felt as if someone was drilling through his shell, with the least delicate drill there was. It felt absolutely horrible. But the hum suddenly started to slowly become less and less deafening, until it was barely audible.

“Sound receptor system calibrated”

Even if the robot lady said it, everything sounded differently, louder and clearer. As if somehow Wheatley had new hearing system one installed.

He tried to open his optic and it felt like someone poured some sort of glue on it, it was hard to see anything. But finally, he opened it and got instantly blinded by harsh white light, which made him close it again.

-Ouch ouch ouch ouch oh God-

He tried to open it again, and it wasn’t as bad this time, but it still hurt a lot, so Wheatley naturally just squinted. Something was wrong with his vision, everything was kind of blurry, though not much enough for him to not notice his surroundings, even if he couldn’t see details. The light wasn’t as blinding now, after the optic got used to it. Everything also seemed closer and further at the same time, which made Wheatley feel a bit nauseous in a way robot could be.

“Please close one optic, then the second one"

-Whoa what do you mean second one wait wait. What is going on? From what I remember I am equipped with only one, am I not?-

But without thinking suddenly his range of sight narrowed, then widened once again.

-Wait-

He started blinking repeatedly, suddenly realising that 1. He had two optics now and 2. Everything looking so weird was caused by not having depth perception up until now. Even though confusing, it was honestly… a good upgrade.

-Oh wow look at me! Having two optics for unknown reason! Not that I am complaining, it’s amazing. Especially that now it’s easier to see what’s closer and what’s further. Useful, very useful, I have to admit- 

“Prepare for being disattached from the construction support in 5, 4, 3…”

-Disattached? Hold on no no no no no stop..!-

The metal arms holding him let go. He fell down and hit the floor really hard, with metallic “clang!”, which sounded a bit muffled, as if by some sort of cloth. Wheatley lied there, groaning in pain. 

-That was very kind of you, you know. Letting me go, when I can’t, I can’t move on my own. Very nice and kind, I wouldn’t think it was a good idea, never in my life. Who would have thought a core isn’t able to move around all by itself?-

“Begin motion and balance calibration”

This time after the robot lady announced new type of calibration, nothing happened, to Wheatley’s great relief, since he was already ready for more painful and ridiculous nonsense. A lot of things were so wrong, and yet in that moment one more thing appeared on the “Very Wrong and Confusing Things Happening Right Now". 

He couldn’t move his handles to not lie on his side, which made him see everything even worse than back on the so called construction support. All efforts to move them were futile.

-Um, excuse me, but where are my handles? Im here, on the floor, on my side, and well it would be way way better and more comfortable to, you know, sit straight? As humans call it? Because I can't see a bloody thing in this position? So if you, for example, decided to put me back on the management rail, it would be very nice of you and helpful for me and I’d be very grateful for the effort- 

Silence was the only answer he got. It was getting pretty frustrating.

-Oh come on, hello? Please? I'm here on the ground in need for help? Wow, that’s a deja vu. What the hell were you thinking by letting me go? Seriously, us cores cannot move on our o…- he suddenly stopped talking, looking at the hand he raised due to annoyance.

A hand.

Human, five-fingered hand with blue, slightly glowing stripe and tight black sleeve behind the wrist.

Not believing his optic(s), Wheatley blinked and tried to make one of the black, metal fingers bend.

It did. 

It took a moment for his processor to actually understand what he was seeing. After few seconds, Wheatley screamed and pushed back with both of his arms, which resulted in him falling on his back with another muffled “clang" and no response from anyone.  
-Oh GOD!- 

Without thinking about it and too freaked out to mind it, Wheatley grabbed his head, shaking slightly due to shock. It felt as if some cruel scientist electrocuted him with a taser baton or something. Absolutely terrifying and absolutely far from pleasant.  
Robot curled up, hugging his legs to his chest, blue light coming from a… thing which in creepy way resembled his previous shell’s optic which slightly illuminated the white loose uniform this body had on. Sleeves reached the elbows, exposing part of something what seemed to be a black bodysuit of some sorts. Shorts ended by the knees, and to them also reached long boots, black as well, with same shade of blue on heels. 

Even though that android body had no reason to be equipped with a stomach, Wheatley would swear he felt sick in humans’ way of meaning. Something similar to the feeling when spinning at tremendous speed on Moon’s orbit. Only after a longer while the feeling slowly vanished, but Wheatley was still tense, refusing to uncurl. It just felt so bizarre. Bizarre enough to make him shut up for a longer time in a stressful situation.

-How… how is it possible..? I, the transfer wasn’t even direct, how is it possible it, it ended with a success? Uh, hello?!- the last one he yelled, so the computer would register the request.

-How long did the transfer take? How long was I gone?- he asked, feeling the anxiety grow. His hands twitched nervously because of it.

-The process took 35 days 20 hours 32 minutes and 7 seconds- 

35 days…

-Thats 4 bloody weeks! How is that possible?! Impressive on one note, considering the, the space thing and all, but, it’s so much time!-

It was very unlikely that despite 4 weeks passing, She forgot about the mess that core caused back then. And now he was back here, in a completely alien body, defenseless and no help was coming for sure. 100%. Or even 101%, if not EVEN more.

-I, I need to get out of here- he said quietly and, without any thoughts he tried to make this incompetent body stand up. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t even manage to kneel, Wheatley just fell forward.

-Oof, ouch!- 

Groaning in pain, he lifted his head and with his new hand rubbed it to make the pain go away. Some malicious designer or engineer decided to give these bodies advanced pain stimulation, because it was hard to compare to the pain generic core shells could stimulate. Back then the pain was just blunt and often easy to ignore, but now...

-Ok that didn’t go as well as I planned- he mumbled and sat back up. At least doing that wasn’t so hard. The surroundings were all slightly blurry, but Wheatley was able to notice that the construction from which he probably fell would be helpful, offering support points. It was pretty tall, and behind it were even more blurred, grey, similarly shaped things. He didn’t pay much of an attention to them though, but focused mostly on reaching the nearby metal bar, so at least he would lift this metal junk off the floor. 

Finally his hand grabbed it and with all strength in the mechanisms, Wheatley pulled himself up, while trying to position his legs and feet in the right way. This took longer than anticipated, with a lot of failures, one resulting with him hitting the bar with the face. Android had to lie down for a longer while because of this, whining in pain.

God, that was awful.

But finally, after a long battle with his new body, Wheatley stood there, proud and not so tall, barely not falling down again. He didn’t risk taking any steps yet, the fact he was standing was enough for that moment.

-How do these humans do that all the time? Mad, you need to think of so much things like, uhh, gravitation and uh, mass, yes mass. Though, I think it’s because of the fact they start walking soon after the uh… production i think?-  
Nobody answered.

Great, its as if he almost forgot how terrible it was to be all alone in Reenrichment Center for so long. Then the lady woke up, a lot of adventures happened, hell, even in space he wasn’t alone! How did he manage to not go crazy for such a long time without talking to anyone? Let’s also mention that not a lot of cores were active back then so finding working one was a miracle. But it was rare to meet them again, for some reason. The luck was immeasurable when that brown one stumbled on Wheatley back when She reactivated.

Suddenly though, Wheatley felt way more secure on his feet, the subconscious threat of falling down again vanished. For a moment he stood there, confused, and then hesitantly let go of the bar. First one hand, then the other. Standing without any support was indeed difficult but not as difficult as he thought it would be while struggling so greatly to get up. 

“Balance system calibrated. Move to the main control room for check-up"

If there was anyone check him up. But that explained why it got suddenly so easy to stand straight. Encouraged by it, Wheatley after a moment took one step, then the other, then stopped. Again, one step, next step, pause. With each try it was getting easier and easier, boosting his confidence.

-Well it actually is easy! Just got to get used to it and look at me goooonoO!- 

He jinxed it really badly, when he lost the balance and fell forward. Luckily Wheatley was close to the wall, so he didn't land on the ground but simply hit the hard white wall panel. 

-Ok, let’s not get ahead of ourselves then, message taken- 

Few more incidents like this happened, three to be exact, but finally after so long, he reached the door. The very same door which were closed the last time he was here, during the synchronisation with the system here. And surprisingly, as soon as the android, still a bit wobbly, approached them, they opened with a quiet hiss.

As he suspected, there was nobody to do the check-up on him, because of obvious reasons, such as neurotoxin. Instead, the only greetings was the hum of computers. Here the light was slightly dimmed, not as painful for his new optics, which Wheatley greeted with relief. But still his vision was blurred and it was getting slightly annoying. At least he was able to see the general surroundings.

Just like before, all monitors were now on, displaying code and other various things, lights flickered on server boxes. 

Yes, just like the last time.

From what he could see due to faulty vision, Wheatley came to the brightest conclusion as of late.

-It’s gonna be hard to climb through the door- he said out loud, looking up at the big metal gates slightly opened, surely enough for a core on a management rail to pass, but not for an android who barely taught itself how to walk. And its stride wasn’t even this good.

-Hello? Can I have these uh, door open? Please? how else can I leave and do my… my android chores? Absolutely only android chores and tasks, no sidetracking whatsoever, no wandering, no escaping. None of that-  
When there was no sign he was heard, Wheatley rubbed his forehead, asking himself why was it all happening, just to spite him even more. Was it some sort of punishment for all the crazy things he did while in chassis? It wouldn’t be a surprise, to be honest. But right now all of it was just like a big joke.

-Ok you want me to figure it out myself huh? Let me make you know that’s no problem at all! No way it is! Oh what’s this, a control panel? Oooh, I’m wondering what will happen if I start pushing random buttons here! With my own fingers!-  
Even though he kept talking about doing something, nothing was happening, none of the buttons made the main door open, just, nothing. Wheatley was pressing one button after another on the keyboard, more and more windows popped out, at first it wasn’t alarming though. After a while, when various sounds kept playing and new windows opening on their own.

-Oh uhh.... I didn’t want to do that…- 

Taking his hands off the console, Wheatley observed the screens nervously. Well, maybe this isn’t such a big thing! Maybe it's just the lights! Or something! Hopefully! 

The only effect was sudden change in volume of working servers, the hum became very loud. Loud enough to make Wheatley unconsciously cover his ears. How did he know they were there? Good question, but maybe it was a simple programmed reflex. Just like blinking and such.

-Hell, shouldn't have done that. Cancel it all stop or you'll burn down!- he shouted and started clicking the “ESC” button. From what he could remember, it was the button scientists used when cancelling something or closing a window. It took a longer while of constant pushing the same piece of keyboard for everything to stop doing what Wheatley initiated. Though the servers still produced the hum slightly louder than earlier.  
-Ok let’s try this again, I guess I need to use my ULTIMATE hacking skills, since this is one tough cookie. Ok sooooo…- He leaned forward to see the letters better, though it was pretty uncomfortable and hard to press buttons while barely seeing WHAT he was pressing.

-Ok uh, here’s database, so that’s not it. Production system activity? Uh, I don't think so, though it’s worth remembering. Just in case. Then there is... production materials supply. Hm, no. Wireless automatic synchronisation? Sounds nice, but not this either. Oh!- he suddenly exclaimed. “Access control system” sounded too promising to not be the right one. Without hesitation he clicked few buttons and then “Enter”, which led to a window with a list of all access points in this project chamber, including the hellish gates which kept him trapped inside.

-Open sesame!- 

Never has ever been a sound of big metal door opening this satisfying. The chamber was slightly shaking, since the metal corroded in few places, which was surprising because this whole place seemed all brand new despite the passage of time. At least the android didn’t fall down again. The enthusiasm he felt died out though, because the door got stuck nearly by the end, so a bit of climbing wasn’t avoidable.

-Well… I’d love to complain but at least I can now leave this cursed place-

Wheatley was about to go towards the exit, when he looked at the console screen again. 

“Wireless automatic synchronisation”.

This text was now visible in the menu along with other options. If it wasn’t for this accidental synch he agreed for 4 weeks ago, he wouldn’t be here. He’d drift in space, around the Mood, with Earth mockingly rotating, reminding of how much better it is down here than up there. 

And that one corrupted core was still in the vacuum, most likely now out of back-up power, in dead, empty space.

A moment of hesitation and Wheatley quickly approached the console again. One click, other click and the big text appeared on the screen, saying the synch was initiated.

Wheatley stood there, expecting at least something more, but nothing changed at all. Apparently though, as Wheatley noticed, nothing happening immediately didn’t mean something didn’t work out. Feeling a bit better, he smiled for the first time..  
It felt nice.

Pity there was no mirror to see how his face looked. But there were more important things to do right now, for example leaving this place and escaping the facility, because for sure what he just did was noticed by Her. And honestly the last thing the android wanted to deal with was all that deadly arsenal available to that AI. Wheatley could remember how he could dispense turrets wherever he wanted, change, switch and shift chambers and have basically unlimited access to all systems. But there was one good thing, neurotoxin wouldn't work on someone who has no lungs.

Hopefully. 

He didn’t have any, right?

Trying to not focus on this, android approached the big door leading outside and with slight hesitation grabbed the ledge. It took a few clumsy tries for him to finally sit on top of it and jump off on the other side. It was not such a big surprise that the landing was far from majestic, Wheatley for quite a long time still had the sore feeling on his face. God, why anyone thought it’s a good idea to enhance the pain simulation? Absolutely bad idea, even an intelligence dampering sphere would never think of such an atrocious thing. 

-Awful awful awful ouch- Wheatley muttered quietly, rubbing his face with right hand. He looked around, trying to see anything, but everything was a black void with occasional brighter blurred points. Wow, his vision was bad.  
-Absolutely marvelous, uh… from what I remember, there was an exit overrrrr…there- 

Indeed, looking in the direction of the theoretical exit he could see a dimmed green light and very blurred, rather big board with some text on it. Wheatley with his palm covering part of still hurting face with great difficulty descended on the stairs, and then proceeded right on the catwalk. It was such a relief that as soon as he left that chamber it was silent. The terrifying, robotic voice didn’t suddenly boom through speakers hidden everywhere. Surprising , because from what Wheatley remembered, the cameras were in every corner. Maybe not here? Let’s hope so.

It turned out that climbing the stairs wasn’t as difficult as going down, and in no time the android reached the door leading to the rest of the facility. He looked back, but wasn’t able to see much. Maybe it was for the best. As soon as he went through the door and the blinding light of nearby chambers washed over him, the relief vanished instantly as soon as he heard the the voice he wished to never hear again.

-So, in some miraculous way you found your way back down here from the space, reactivated the long forgotten system and even managed to be the first one to use it. I would say I’m impressed, but knowing you it was a simple coincidence. So congratulations for being lucky so far-

Wheatley shuddered, feeling Her watching his every move. Desperate to hide, Wheatley picked up the pace and, to his surprise, after a while he was running towards the metal stairs leading to the upper sector. There should be a passage to old offices, and with that, some sort of exit humans used. 

Hopefully…

-Oh. Where do you think you’re going?-

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the meantime in the other part of the facility one maintenance core got surprised by a sudden message. Confused, it pondered for a longer while on in, extremely suspicious of its origin, unlike two other cores stuck in the junkyard deep below the testing chambers. One agreed in a robotic heartbeat, always up for a new adventure and thrill, while the other took a lot of its’ time for making up its mind. All three accepted the offer in the end. The corrupted one currently drifting above the Moon’s surface also received the message, though its batteries died a long time ago, what caused the automatic confirmation for transfer. 

That one was going home too after all.


	4. Rat chase

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After finally geting a hang of his new shell, Wheatley focuses on his primary goal he had since the beginning of all this mess, the Surface.

Two testing robots were struggling with test no. 73 for over 3 hours now, but they haven't lost the determination to finally somehow unlock the door leading to another testing chamber, and then another and another. GLaDOS found it funny at first, but as the time went on she got more and more bored with predictivity. No matter how hard the test was, robots at some point managed to solve it. Yes, that was the goal but these two did it exactly how the test should be solved. With human test subject, the ways of coming up with a solution often were unique, either over complicated or simplified. There was a thrill when observing them. 

Also, humans could die. Robots couldn’t, not in the human way of understanding anyway. Once a test subject fell, they were gone forever, while robots could be simply reconstructed. These two down there have failed so many times, yet those were the same robots, only in new shells. 

GLaDOS was regretting of letting the mute lunatic go. But on the other hand, if she stayed down here, she would somehow still escape, destroy everything and maybe kill the central core for the third time. As much as that human was a good lab rat and excellent test solver it was better with her gone.

Massive robot turned around slowly in her chamber, supervising everything, but now her attention shifted from cooperative testing to finding one anomaly which was now running lose in her facility. She was in fact somewhat expecting the return, but not in that faulty, unstable and honestly simply useless form.

Oh look, he just tripped, again.

-I thought I should inform you about the fact, that you have just beaten the record of amounts of losing footing in one run. So there, something else aside from destroying everything you're good at- She could see the android on the camera feed looking around anxiously, his face showing embarrassment. If it was human, GLaDOS was sure he’d be in purest shade of red. 

-Hey now! I, I am good at some things! Like for example uh… escaping! Yes, you couldn’t catch us back then..!- He instantly lost the sudden confidence when the chamber nearby moved closer, almost shifting the metal catwalk the android was walking on. 

-That was a neglect from my side, I apologise for that, and let me assure you it will not happen again- 

Wheatley started running when the steel path behind him broke due to pressure of moving chambers. After a while he disappeared from her sight for now. But it was no reason to worry. Where could he go she couldn’t follow?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was absolutely terrifying, the thought of the abyss below his feet that he could fall into any moment. Catwalk was shaking violently, the terrible, deafening grinding sound following the running android, who somehow managed to not lose his footing again. Luckly, he kept running non stop, but then suddenly another chamber in front of him moved forward and blocked the passage. Metal parts broke and fell off, dangerously shifting the structure to the point Wheatley had to grab on the railing in order to not slide down into the abyss. 

Fear made the metaphorical stomach shrink as the android looked down, and got even worse when he noticed that these chambers didn’t stop, they kept sliding towards him, slowly reaching again the remains of the catwalk.  
Did She want him to fall down?

Or was She trying to crush him with the walls of these?

-It's a bit sad, honestly. Despite all the drawbacks and adversities you managed to come back here, walk around for a longer while and not die by an accident. Impressive, I'd say. But well, you’re out of luck, because none of the good things that happened to you were in no way of your doing-

Wheatley tried to ignore her, looking for a way out but, as stated before, the situation was quite hopeless. There were no ways out, not other passages, no door, nothing! He will die here after all that he went through!  
Then suddenly he noticed something, something unusual for the facility. He saw it in a corner of his eye.

A red, small and clearly hand-drawn arrow, pointing at narrow space between the other two stationary chambers. It was dark inside, but honestly Wheatley didn’t mind that, if that would mean for example survival. Without a second thought he pulled himself up to stand more firmly and when the chambers started crushing the sides of the catwalk, android let go of the rail and jumped. 

How great was his surprise when instead of nothingness he hit a floor and everything got darker around. It turned out that he closed his eyes when in the air so the first thing Wheatley saw was the wall of one test chamber sliding by, cutting off the light coming in through the entrance to this passage. Now instead of just a bit dark it got pitch black, making the situation even worse. The ground started shaking when the chambers began to move around. She was looking for him.

-Where have you hidden? You know it doesn’t mean I won’t find you in the end? Also we both know you have nowhere to go, don’t try to deny it-

Wheatley pressed his hand against his mouth, doing his best to make no sound as he sat up carefully, trying to not hit anything here and luckily managed to do so, though he had to lean down a bit. The chamber that blocked the entrance stayed there, apparently with no intentions of moving aside and letting the very needed light in. 

-Curses, only if I had that flashlight… oh wait- 

Moment of tinkering with the settings and soon he had two bright, though a bit painful, rays of light illuminating his path.

-Perfectly convenient, but ouch- 

He rubbed his eyes, though it didn’t do anything, what wasn’t surprising in the end. 

The ground started shaking slightly again, which meant that it was high time to leave. She was looking for him and Wheatley surely didn’t want to be found.

He stood up and as soon as android lifted his head, the lights illuminated the wall of the passage. A horrid face, with a terrifying expression looked back, its mouth big and black, like a void. The sight made Wheatley exclaim in fear and shock, as he hit the other wall with his back. It took few seconds for him to recognise this monstrosity as a painting on the wall. The lights now exposed the whole drawing, probably presenting a scientist, twisted in clearly painful position.

-Oh my, this one surely isn't having a good time- anxious, android mumbled to himself quietly. Upon examination it turned out this man on the wall was apparently suffocating. The weird black and green swirls around were making it clear.

Wheatley felt a cold shiver go down his metallic spine. He heard what happened to this place many years ago, when humans used to still walk these hallways. It never seemed very serious to robots down here, because, aside from general aversion to humans, but also how abstract the concept of suffocation was for them. And still was, Wheatley was sure by now that this new body had no lungs, or any organs typical for humans. It didn’t stop him from feeling slightly nauseous about that thought though.

-I need to get out of here-

He looked down the passage, light illuminating the path, but saw nothing. Hesitating, android still leaned on the wall, when another tremor made him start moving. To his surprise, every few meters there were arrows, crudely drawn with red and black paint. Sometimes also words appeared, such as “Over here”, “She's watching you”, and some other nonsense. Drawings were scarce, most commonly showing weighted companion cubes, turrets and cameras. After a longer while Wheatley wasn’t looking forward where he was going, but at the walls, watching more and more text and drawings appear. 

He didn’t notice the sudden hole and fell out from the passage few meters down, only to be met by dirty, old floor, covered with water.

-Ew ew ew ew ew ew disgusting ew oh God disgusting!-

Wheatley jumped up immediately to get out from the greenish liquid, which smelled horrible. Wow, having a sense of smell sure was one of many surprises today.

Waving his legs and hands to dry them off, android jumped to the dry part of the ruined floor made out of concrete, green mostly due to moss. It was squishy, wet and disgusting, Wheatley cringed when he accidentally stepped on the bigger batch. In the end he stood on top of small bunch of debris, trying to shake off the terrible feeling.

-What in the hell is this place?! How could any nasty den like this be in the facility? Disgusting, absolutely horrendous- 

The low light barely illuminated the room, which seemed to be made for humans to stay in. It was pretty tall, in circular shape. There was a lot of rubbish lying around, metal scraps and parts of the walls. 

-Ugh, there are a lot of places where I would rather be, but at least this seems to be out of Her reach, so there's that- 

Wheatley turned around and was faced by Her.

-Aagh!- 

He fell back, screaming, and landed in water again. His off-white suit was now stained with green and brown, way heavier than it was when dry. But the glow of the Core on his chest still shined slightly, despite how dirty it was now. Android looked at the painting on the big chamber panel. It was depicting the Central Core, surrounded by some other black silhouettes wearing white coats. They seemed to examine the Core.

-Scientists?-

On the right was another painting, pretty similar, but, to Wheatley’s distress, it showed the same scientists apparently in pain, with one figure surrounded by orange lines, holding the weighted companion cube. He watched the other drawings, each on another panel, with mixture of curiosity and fear. Wheatley couldn’t dismiss the artistic skills of the author, but they showed what happened in a bit too much of a detail, all these were simply terrifying. Then he turned to look at the last painting, and had to take a step back.

It was Her!

The test subject looked as if she was sleeping, she had the orange jumpsuit on, her face drawn with incredible detail. Wheatley came closer to have better view, since his vision was quite blurred. She seemed so calm on this drawing, very different from the determined expression she had all the time when she tried to get out of this hell of a place. Wheatley watched the depiction of the lady for a longer while, suddenly feeling crushed. 

-I’m sorry, for everything. I know I know, it was dumb and honestly, it's me who was selfish here, not you. Even if you didn’t catch me, it is very poor excuse-

Wheatley stepped back and rubbed his forehead in resignation.

-I wish I could say it in person, not to some weird painting in this den- 

He looked around, trying to find a way out of this room. He wanted to leave as fast as possible, this place was making him feel terrible. Through blurry vision Wheatley noticed a pathway, on the next floor. The debris nearby would be a good way to reach it. 

-I should get going, before She somehow catches me. God, and it was so peaceful back there, in space- 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another tremor of moving chambers. It was probably the 10th one in past fifteen minutes, which was surprising. But, on the other hand, She was quite determined to find that rat that was roaming in her facility, so close and yet so far out of her reach at the same time. Wheatley knew how frustrating that was, he felt the same about a month ago. Now it seemed like an eternity, yet still the recollection of anger and frustration remained in his memory banks. But now it wasn’t just about locking him up and using for tests like She did with humans, probably anyway. Now it was surely a simple hunt, like a cat hunting a mouse. Another of many, many reasons to not get caught.

Now feeling very secure on his two legs, Wheatley ran quite fast towards the entrance to the upper sector, hearing the turrets behind him. They were probably in the chamber which was being opened up wide so he could be locked on.

-Damn!- 

He ducked towards the door, feeling the bullets hitting his metal shell, making some holes in his shirt on the back.

It hurt.

So so much.

Probably not as much as it hurt humans, the bullets not entering the body, but simply jumping off (it turned out the metal his new body was made of was quite difficult to damage in that way) didn’t mean he could just brush it off as if they were rain drops.

Whining, he fell behind the wall, safe from THOSE turrets for now. It took a while until he was able to walk again without bigger problems, but he still limped a bit when entering the offices.

From what he knew there was a hallway here leading to the sector which was the closest to the surface, which meant a way out, WHICH meant salvation. Filled with hope, Wheatley picked up the pace and headed towards the door on the other side of the room. All trash from the work desks was on the ground, making the walk a bit more difficult. All those broken mugs, books, papers, sometimes even telephones and computers, the mess was terrible, and if Wheatley could breathe the neurotoxin wouldn’t be needed to make him suffocate. The amount of dust here was just unimaginable.

-How could they work here? It's so dark, and dirty, ane just unpleasant. No wonders the founder of this place went crazy. And then died, leaving all the robot monstrosities behind…- 

Regretting saying that, Wheatley started trotting, trying not to think of more of these robot ghost stories. Why did he even say that? There was no one here to listen to this!

Idiot!

Android finally left the offices after few minutes of unbearable tension and was greeted with the view of more, much more testing chambers. There was a weird warm light coming from very distant part of this sector. Wheatley was suspecting the source of this, but did not dare to say it out loud, since he seemed to be very good at jinxing things.

-There you are-

Without hesitation, Wheatley turned right and entered the maintenance catwalk, which led to the bigger room. Some of test chambers started moving towards him.

Not again not again not again please…

-I hope you're done playing this ridiculous game of hide and seek with me, since it was quite frustrating. It’s been a long time since I had a pest loose in my facility and I hoped it wouldn't happen again-

He tried to ignore her words, focusing on the stairs leading to the room above him. Luckily, the test chambers were very slow, so he should have no problems with getting up there. Android started running up, surprisingly fast, but he didn’t waste time on being proud because of this.

-Oh no you don’t-

When he was about to enter the room the door suddenly shut. Wheatley hit the metal blockade and almost fell back down, but managed to grab onto the railing of the stairs.

-Don't think it will be that easy-

-Hello? Are you there?-

Turrets.

She deployed more of the turrets.

Panicking, he started hitting the door, tried pulling it down despite the obvious fact he couldn't do anything. Robot looked around, desperate for any other way and saw, on the left side of this sector, there was an elevator. Two glass tubes went up, towards the ceiling, probably leading to the surface.

The turrets behind were targeting him, the red lasers setting themselves on his body. 

After a moment, Wheatley gathered the courage and charged at then, knocking the white military bots aside. There were gunshots, screams, and also pain on the back and sides. But Wheatley didn’t mind these, he just focused on running. The test chambers were now very close, almost touching the catwalk, but he still ran, faster than ever, his eyes locked on the elevators.

-You can't leave, you know. The chances you make it out alive are simply nonexistent. You're too much of a moron to even survive outside. You'll die out there no matter what you think. I know that, because I know you-

Even if her words hurt him, the robot didn't show it. He just ran up the stairs, hearing the test chambers closing in to block his way. 

But he was faster.

And not limited to rails.

Not anymore.

He finally reached the elevators and, without wasting time, ran inside the closer one. One glance at the panel with floor list and he hit the highest one, number 1+. Surface.

Elevator door quickly closed and without any delay, the elevator went up. Chambers kept closing in, but they couldn't reach the shaft, since it was sinked in the wall. They were slowly getting smaller, until the elevator entered the hole in the ceiling. It got dark outside, only one last lightbulb gave weak white light.

She couldn’t get him now.

Suddenly his knees felt weak and Wheatley fell on the floor with a metallic sound, but for now he couldn't be bothered to stand up. 

He was actually getting out.

The sudden relief was almost literally crushing, and Wheatley didn’t stand up even when the characteristic ding announced the end of the ride. 

When he finally left the elevator, Wheatley found himself in guest lobby, once probably quite fancy, but now ruined, the colors barely visible, parts of ceiling and walls fell on the ground. It was very big, with a lot of doors on side walls, open entrance to the cafeteria probably, there was also a station for secretaries, who possibly were there to welcome newcomers. All around stood couches, not used in ages, ruined, with foam coming through many tears in red material. The red carpet, now almost grey, led to the big glass door and behind them towards the main guest entrance. Glass from windows nearby the big door was gone, shattered on the ground, which let the sunlight in.

After a moment of hesitation, Wheatley started running towards the warm light, only slightly watching out to not trip on the garbage on the ground. He slammed the glass door open and reached the entrance ones. They were broken, one wing was nearby, lying on the ground. Without stopping android ran through the gap left by it and got flooded by yellow warm light. 

The sudden change of light made him stop in middle of driveway, covering his eyes. But only for a moment. He uncovered the them and looked around in disbelief. 

Tall concrete walls, some additional buildings, parking with some old and completely destroyed, rusty cars, big statue showing the logo of Aperture Science and open big, simple gate leading outside. Wheatley looked behind, at the big building with facade made out of glass, out of which majority got shattered. The plants were creeping on the walls and empty frames for windows, some were even on the flat roof high above him. It wouldn’t be soon until the nature reclaims the surface parts of Aperture, and honestly, after all of this, Wheatley would give a lot to see this place when all this concrete is gone and instead it's just one big meadow.

It was completely silent, only the wind made the trees that were left in this small plaza rustle peacefully. There were probably a lot of trees behind the tall walls. Sky was orange, as sun was setting low, coloring the few of clouds red and purple. Wheatley observed it all, silent. Suddenly a bird flew a meter away from him, chirping in alert. Android observed it until the animal flew over the wall and disappeared. Only then he fully realised that he did it.

After so damn long, trapped down there, in synthetic, cold and harsh dungeon with omnipotent AI, neverending threat of death, now he left it all behind. The sun was now shining, the breeze blowing, no electronic buzz, smell of ozone (did he mention how fresh and pleasant the smell of air outside was?). 

Wheatley exclaimed loudly with joy and stated jumping, with indescribable feeling in his chest. This felt amazing! He didn’t have to stay low now! He could be loud! Go wherever he wanted!

When he finally calmed down a bit, with big grin on his face, android straightened his back, metal plates smoothly rubbing each other to make the move possible, and headed towards the big metal, now open and rusty gate. He didn’t know where to go, but Wheatley was too delighted to even care about that right now. What was important was that after all those years he finally made it out. And there was no stopping for him now.

Still grinning, he passed the gate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Being conscious again felt almost like a harsh slap into the face after one dang long sleep. 

Another slap was the fact that there was no longer any silence. The electric buzz was almost deafening after such a long time without any sounds.  
And groaning.

There were other voices, which would make his ears burst, if he had any of course.

-What the hell..?- someone said.

-What is this..?- another one answered with a question.

Even though they were weak, he had an urge to yell at their owners to shut up, that they were too loud. 

But he couldn’t say anything, it almost felt as if he had some sort of a blockade installed.

It's all so confusing!

What is going on!?

“Sound receptor system calibrated”


	5. Today I saw a deer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After years of being stuck undreground, walking on the surface is a delight hard to describe. But with most of past problems now gone, new ones appear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case this chapter is a bit messy I apologise! I had a lot of things happening for these four months. but now the updates should be more frequent.

Wheat rustled quietly, moving with the gusts of warm wind, making the vast golden plains look like an ocean, of which photographs were saved in Central Core's database. At first glance it seemed to be empty, with no living soul around, but aside from that constant rustle, rarely, somewhere nearby the android a cricket decided to chirp, announcing its existence and always making him jump out of “surprise” a little. But as soon as Wheatley got too close, it went silent, possibly fleeing. Rarely even a lonely bird or two appeared above, flying by high in the air. Everytime one of these animals showed up it was quite a feat since it's been almost three days since he left that small forest which was surrounding the main entrance of Aperture behind. At first being in the open made the robot feel really anxious. Back there, below the ground, were very few places to hide, at least at the first glance, but there were SOME at least. Here it was all just empty plain with nothing but high yellow cereal.

The first night was the worst because when it got dark all sounds seemed to become louder, closer, more… malicious? But surely those few hours belonged to the most stressful times ever since he got activated for the first time, along with being crushed by Her pincers, or being stuck in that one dark closet for a week.

Now the nights turned out to not being so bad, especially because Wheatley realised all those creatures seemed to be more afraid of him than he was of them. It felt somewhat satisfying too. It felt nice to not be afraid of everything for a change.  
Sudden strong gust of air distracted him and brought back to reality. Lucky for him, because Wheatley was about to walk into a fallen electric pylon, one of many, perfectly on the level of his head.

-Wow ok, thank you, atmospheric occurrence. Very nice of you- 

He walked around the pole and looked forward, seeing nothing but yellow wheat reaching the horizon. Behind him it looked the same, though he could swear there was a bit of green, the said forest that surrounded Aperture's guest entrance. 

-I’m wondering how large this field is, it’s almost aerie. It feels as if, as if whole world was just, one big yellow field of cereal-

Despite being used to silence by now, Wheatley wished someone was here too. Even if it was peaceful and safe out here, it was just as lonely as back in the underground chambers. Even in space there was some company. Not the best, with no chances for a normal conversation, but it was some company. 

-Funny, I almost wish he was here as well. Or literally anyone, honestly-

Without further hesitations, trying to get rid of these not so pleasant thoughts, he resumed walking, with the sun shining above, in its highest position. The built-in thermometer showed that it was around 28 degrees on Celsius scale at the moment. If he was in his old shell, it would have shut down because of overheating a long time ago. 

This new body was amazing! If not a bit more complicated and difficult in use at first, but all one needed was a bit of adjustment to all these new functions and informations. For example, turns out this shell was a model focused on assistance and human contacts, apparently called model A. Not one original name, but it will pass. Thanks to that role he had saved in his system the complete list of whole Aperture staff, most of who, if not everyone, was dead. It was a bit weird to see all these faces and knowing they were all gone for most likely a really long time now.

While he was wandering with his thoughts again, something appeared on his left. Only after a moment Wheatley stopped and looked at the darker, blurred spot. He stood there for a while, squinting to see better until the blurred thing moved to the right a bit. After The first shock, android tensed up in a way metal body could and started slowly walking towards it.

-Easy, they're more scared of you than you are, they're more scared than you are, definitely more scared than you are, especially when… they're… quite big… oh-

From smaller distance he could see that it was just a deer, no, a doe. She looked at him alert, her big eyes barely blinking. He stayed quiet, trying to avoid provoking her into attacking or something similar. Even though she wasn’t THAT big, Wheatley was sure if that animal wanted, he would be in grave danger.

They stood there, in silence, none of them moving when suddenly out of the grass behind the doe, appeared a small head on long and thin neck. A fawn stayed motionless, sniffing the air loudly. Another short while passed and the doe seemed to relax. She switched position, licked the top of the fawn's head, which quickly, but wobbly stood up. Without any sign they both turned around and ran away, leaving Wheatley alone. 

-Who would've known, they are still here. After all this time? Though I shouldn't be surprised, other animals are here too-

Still a bit shaken by the sudden encounter, he resumed walking, his mind seemingly following the two animals running God-knows where.

Maybe to the forest? 

Or some waterhole?

Do deer have some sort of… dens? Or hideouts?

Or simply somewhere without nosy robots?

After few hours though, he had to stop.

-What is this?-

In front of him was a cloud.

But not the usual white, rather small one, which floated high above. That one was so big it covered most of the sky to the horizon. It was grey and blocked the sun and it looked like it was…

-Leaking? No, wait-

The sudden blow of chilly wind brought a specific smell with it. At first Wheatley had no idea what it meant but then a pop-up showed up on his vision.

“Rain”

-Ohh no no no no oh God this is bad what do I do where the hell am I supposed to go. Unless this piece of junk is, let's say, waterproof, which would be really nice and convenient, I won't lie. That should be a standard, honestly-  
But in the system it said this model, unlike models B, B2 and C, wasn’t waterproof, or at least, not completly. It COULD withstand a bit of water, the fall into that small overgrown pond in the room with drawings was a solid proof of that fact. But still, rain surely would be one big issue. 

-You gotta be kidding me, it has to be a damn joke- he scratched his head.

The cloud was looming above, but luckily didn’t progress THAT quickly.

-Ok ok I have time it's not an emergency, uh…- He looked to the left.

Nothing.

To the right?

Also nothing.

Going back was also not an option.

-Uh… you, you know what they say. Always pick right, it’s the only right choice- then he chuckled to himself quietly.

-Oh ok I see, that's, that’s one clever joke- He stood there for a while in silence, then hesitantly headed right and started walking quite fast, with dark, rainy doom lingering on his left, making him anxious as hell. 

-Please take your time, there is no need for any sort of rush, everything is dandy, we don’t need any moisturizing here-

The cloud kept slowly floating forward, with grey veil or distant rain beneath it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was getting darker and darker, now only very few fragments of blue sky remained, everything else was grey, grim and unnerving. Wheatley felt the much stronger gusts of wind pushing him left, but he stayed on track...hopefully. There was nothing that would help him determine the direction. No compass, no map, nothing. Because why would he need it? Nobody ever would even consider a possibility of an android escaping the facility, there were no reasons for it to do so, according to humans back then anyway. So now he had to depend on sheer luck only.

“You always depend on luck”

He shivered.

She kept taunting him back then, when he was trying to reach literally any exit. He kept denying her, either out loud or silently, maybe because he didn’t want to accept it, believe it. But it started to look like she might be right again.  
Wheatley suddenly felt something small fall on his face. He automatically touched it with one finger.

It was a small drop of water.

He stared at it for a moment.

-Great, just perfect! Amazing! Wonderful!- he suddenly exclaimed loudly.

-All that damn effort to get here, all that chasing and, and running and hiding and now walking and I’ll get fried like a, a toaster or something! Because it's soooo hard to make, build a shell waterproof! Wow great, amazing I’m loving this! Go nature! Cheers!- he angrily kicked the dirt, a bit of dry short grass flew up in the air. His boot got even more dusty, but the android stopped caring about staying clean a long time ago. His white shirt and shorts were now covered with big patches of light brown and green, thanks to falling into that old water back in the facility, at the room with those creepy painting on the old panels. Now he looked as if he rolled around in dirt, even his black metal fingers were covered in dust, making his hands look like normal human hands. But it made the exposed metal joints work a bit worse, being them got a bit harder.

-I love this, outside world is just great! Down there all I had to worry about was just hiding! Yeah sure sure, everlasting threat of death and all, but…- he got quiet.

-Oh God why am I even complaining. It is indescribably better here than there. I just can't do anything myself!-

More and more drops were falling down, his hair of still unknown color was being slowly getting wet and sticking to his unknown face.

-I’m hopeless-

That felt like a punch into metaphorical guts.

Whole sky was now grey, it got dark as if the sun had already settled down. Gusts of wind were cold and very strong, it felt as if they could swipe him off the ground. But he stood there rubbing his arms, feeling worse and worse.  
God, he was a forsaken cause, wasn't he? Not only corrupted core, but now faulty, rogue android, most likely as corrupted. In middle of nowhere about to be shut down because of some goddamn rain. With no destination or goal.  
And all of it was HIS fault.

But despite the sudden despair, Wheatley started walking, not paying attention to his surroundings. Everything was the same anyway, so why bother that much.

The rain was literally minutes from starting when robot stumbled upon an old road, disappearing in the horizon from both sides. It was covered with holes, rubbish, some plants and also a lot of broken cars. Some of them looked more like military trucks than normal, commonly used ones. He knew that because back at Aperture, when he left the building, some remains of cars were still on the parking. They were barely holding together.

Here it was the same, but models seemed to be more advanced, modern. And way way more damaged. It looked as if something tore them apart, or burned with some seriously hot, hellish fire. Or a burner. The metal was even melted in some places.

-What the hell..?- before Wheatley finished, heavy drops started hitting the metal caroseries, it began raining. Without hesitation android ran towards the closest car. It didn’t seem damaged enough to let the water inside so he pulled the handle of back door, but it didn’t open.

-Uh..? Maybe… now?- he mumbled and pulled it the other way. Still nothing.

-Oh come ON!- he groaned and without any second thoughts broke the window with his elbow. Glass was nothing against metal so one hit was enough to shatter it. 

-Not perfect, but it ‘otta do- 

It was starting to rain really heavily, so after a moment, Wheatley crawled in and was not so comfortably sitting on an old, a bit damaged passengers seat in the back of the car. Relief was enormous when outside the water started falling down as hard as if someone just emptied a whole bucket. That view made him way more nervous than he should be, now sheltered. 

-Just in time, I can’t imagine being outside now. Circuits fried for sure... not fun, definitely, just like that one poor guy- he said, remembering now how he found a core in a small water container. It probably fell off the rail and was in the water for a longer time, because the shell was almost completly covered with rust.

He quickly ran a safety check to see if the early drops that fell on him. They would be a problem if yes, but everything seemed to be fine. Temperature was ok, just like battery and everything else. The blue core on his chest was shining slightly, illuminating the seat in front of him.

-Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. Who would've thought I would be here? And, and imagine I was in space just few days ago- 

It was getting darker and darker, loud banging of raindrops on the car's metal ceiling was somewhat comforting. Wheatley looked at the big tank-like truck nearby, barely now visible. 

-Weird, why would these be here? I thought such things would never be abandoned. I mean. Military, these guys should keep these. Just like the other cars. Why would someone leave them?- 

Android now focused on the interior of the car, his current safe haven. It was dirty, everything dirty, worn out by the passage of time. A lot of junk was here too. For example, some wierd, rectangular thing on the seat on his left, among other things. It has a lot of buttons and small screen. Wheatley squinted to read a small text on its top.

-Game...Boy? Huh, fancy, but not THAT creative- 

He grabbed the gizmo to see it better. The plastic shell was broken in some places, on behind there were some… stickers? Mostly white, the color rubbed off a long time ago. Two buttons fell off.

-Funny thing, but what did you do?- 

It got really dark after a while, the inner clock said it was 7 pm. Wheatley put “GameBoy” back and again looked outside.

It kept raining. Like earlier.

Unconsciously, he started to tap the ground with his foot in stable rhythm. Then instead of foot, he tapped the rhythm with his fingers. It took only 10 minutes of this until he groaned loudly.

-I can't stand it! How long will I have to stay in here?! I'll go mad! Corrupted!- he exclaimed and rubbed his eyes. Even though he couldn't get tired, like humans did, he felt a bit worn out.Honestly, come to think of it, it’s the first time since he left the facility that he stopped walking. 4 days on move. That sure was something.

-So what, do I have to wait? Who knows how long it will take. I mean, I CAN wait, what else can I do. But does it mean sitting here, doing nothing?- 

He checked his system again, looking for something to preoccupy himself with, the list of staff was always a good choice, but right now he didn’t feel like it. So instead, he looked out again, as the rain seemed to die down a little bit. After a while Wheatley put his hand outside and observed the rain drops fall on it, washing down the dust and revealing his black, metal fingers. Android kept it outside for a moment until he received an alert that more exposition to liquids might damage the circuitry in his arm. Quickly pulling his hand back inside, Wheatley cursed.

-What was I thinking? That I could enjoy it like humans do? Idiotic-

Turned out the only thing he can do now is just observe the outside weather, raindrops falling on the completely destroyed concrete. In most of cracks and holes grew quite plenty of plants, hell, even flowers! And he didn’t see much of these earlier, on the field. Occasionally, some red and blue ones appeared in the endless gold ocean. These were small, slightly pink with big yellow center. They swayed in the wind in delicate manner, not looking to be bothered by heavy rain, as if all the drops avoided them on purpose. 

Without realising it, Wheatley was slowly switching into sleep mode because of his inactivity. He wasn’t moving at all, mind slow for the first time in a really long time. 

-This is nice- he mumbled and turned off.

It was peaceful, wind blew, while the rain quietly hit the cars, creating a fascinating melody. It seemed as if grass sprouted in the matter of minutes, enriching the scenery with small amount of green.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A loud metallic sound immediately woke him out of sleep mode. Android jumped in the seat, almost hitting the ceiling of the car with his head.

-I’m on!- he yelped, unconsciously shielding his face with arms. When nothing happened, Wheatley lowered them only to see that it was day already, hell, maybe even midday! The sun was shining as yesterday, wind almost non existent. Looking for the source of the sound that alarmed him, android stuck his head out though the shattered window. The field looked a bit different, it was more… green? Surely seemed to be in a better state than yesterday, the air felt a bit different, temperature for sure was a bit lower. Surely because of the rain.

-Uh… hello?- he said quietly, not sure if he wanted to be heard.

When there was no response for a longer while, he sat back down on the seat.

-Weird…-

Then suddenly his eye caught a small movement, on the right. Squinting, he turned to see what it was and suddenly felt as if all the water that fell down at night crashed on him at once, crushing him into a small tin can. Even though he wasn’t sure, his blasted vision was as bad as always, as fast as he could, Wheatley crawled out through the window, lost balance for a moment and when he regained it, rushed towards the person currently scavenging another car, about 90 feet from him, still possibly not aware of a dirty, rogue android running directly at them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for it taking so long! Finals are coming so this is the shortest chapter so far, also possibly the most messy too, but I wanted to try and describe how wierd and new the world is to a *robot* which spent almost all its life underground.


	6. Vagabond

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suddenly meeting the former test subject didn't go as Wheatley planned. Even though he apologised, he has to yet experience consequences of his actions, and these are far from pleasant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Hi. It's been a while, again. But hey, have the longest chapter so far, that hopefully makes up for me taking so long xd

There was no other sounds than the metal hitting metal and occasional grunts as Wheatley ran towards the person by the broken car with all wheels its missing and covered with incredible amount of rust. They were bent over, apparently searching for something inside the vehicle. Close by lied quite a big bag with various tools and things in it, mostly screwdrivers and quite rusted thin wires wrapped with a black tape. There was also a small plastic box in it, for some reason. It seemed like the one now almost completely gone inside a car, now with only legs dangling out, came here fully prepared.

Wheatley slowed down when approaching the car because it was obvious that running up to someone who for sure couldn’t hear him coming closer because of all the noise would be a bad idea, and doing so would be quite rude on his behalf too. But luckily the person already crawled out from the car’s carcass, holding something the android couldn’t see well and reached out for the bag mentioned earlier. Wheatley cleared his throat, in a metaphorical sense, since he practically had no throat. It was just for the confidence boost.

-’Ello!-

Before he could even blink, also metaphorically, the person in front of him screamed, turned around and Wheatley received a direct hit into his face that sent him on the ground.

It hurt SO MUCH.

He covered his face with hands and groaned loudly, not even trying to stand up. He was expecting to have his nose broken, but it luckily wasn’t, thank God the metal he was made of was of better quality than the weapon he was just attacked with. Though he wasn’t sure if his jaw hinges were fine. There was a small resistance when he tried to open his mouth a bit.

-Ow ow ow ow ow! Oh God, ouch! That was completely unnecessary! Ow!- Android whined, lying on the ground, but after a moment he slowly sat back up, still holding his jaw with one hand and looked up to a figure standing few meters away from him, holding a long, rusty and bent in few places pipe in right hand. Wheatley rubbed his jaw again to soothe down the artificial pain receptors, which would enable him to talk freely. 

-I didn’t...I didn’t see that coming. I admit, suddenly speaking up from behind your back, especially if you didn’t expect anyone was not a good idea, I agree. But going straight for the pipe and hitting me in the face? Again, I understand, but I wouldn’t expect that from anyone, even you- he said in a bit of an accusing tone.

She remained silent, just as Wheatley remembered her. Tense, always looking as if she was ready to escape any second. She looked way more healthy than back on testing tracks though, her skin now light brown, not sickly pale. Even her hair seed to be in better shape, or what was left of it, since she apparently cut them so much they didn't even reach her shoulders. 

But it was the same mute lunatic from Aperture, for sure, though it was weird to see her wear something else than the usual orange jumpsuit that all test subjects had to wear. Now she had had put on a plain blue t-shirt and long, greenish military-like trousers. And the usual bandage on her right forearm, for some reason. The pipe she used in self defense slightly trembled in her hand, just like woman's entire body. Instead of stoic and calm, as it was back down there, her face now was displaying quite an impressive expression, that the android understood as confusion and fear.

-Are you alright?- Wheatley asked and stood up. He really didn’t like to look up at someone when talking, mostly because it was most of the time him that had to be looked up at during conversation. Riding on a management rail had its pros, but now he had to bear with the fact, that either she was unusually tall, or he was simply that short that he would barely reach to shoulders of medium sized person. It was a bit bothering, honestly.  
-Oh right! You probably don't recognize me! You probably WON'T believe me what happened ever, but it's me, Wheatley! Your partner in testing and in escape from, uh, down there- the last part he said in a hushed tone, as if Her range of hearing reached even here. 

-But I'm sure you remember and, and you're probably wondering what happened, am I right? Because the Moon is pretty quite far from Earth, won’t you agree? So listen to this, it’s one weird story. Back when, when we were escaping from… Her, I've found something, something reeaally interesting and you see…- He kept on talking and didn’t notice that Chell was slowly backing up, and when she touched the car with her back, she slided towards the bag, wanting to grab it and run as fast as she could. Only when she reached out for it, Wheatley looked at her and finally let go of his jaw that wasn't hurting that much anymore.

-Wh-What are you doing? Are you… Hey!- he exclaimed when she grabbed the bag and sprinted left, staying on a road. Android took off after her with a slight delay, yelling after her.

-Hey! Come back! Was it something I said?! Is it still because I called you people smelly?! I already have apologised for it!- he yelled, trying to catch up with her. Wheatley didn’t trip, which was something to be proud of because of the difficult terrain, but there were other things he should focus on, like for example making the mute lunatic stop running! After a while though the woman started slowing down, most likely because she was running out of stamina. Android didn’t lose his pace because, well, he had no muscles that would grow tired, and no lungs that would need oxygen. Because of that fact, he finally was close enough to grab her bag, but he let it go the second later so he wouldn't get hit with the pipe again. It missed his face by mere millimeters, but it was enough to make him lose balance and fall. 

-You must stop with the pipe! You’ll hurt someone at, at this rate!- he exclaimed, while sitting up and rubbing his head, which hurt because of the fall. His clothes got even more dirty and dusty. It was clear for him how bad he looked right now. The image of him on the ground covered in dirt, moss (back from the painting room) and as of late also dust created an absolutely pathetic scene. Wheatley groaned and tried to brush the dirt off of his weird shirt, that used to be in fact white.

-As dangerous as ever, I get it, but this is a bit too far! And why run away? I didn’t say anything bad, did I?-  
When he looked up from the ground at the former test subject, who stood in front of him, with the pipe in left hand ready to be used again, her face telling that she wouldn’t hesitate to really break HIS face. She was looking at the android with pure fear on her face, almost crying in fact, breathing heavily. It wasn’t clear if it because of panic or the exhaustion, or both. But this view made his big mouth shut up for a second. Realising his situation, Wheatley slowly tried to stand up, but woman taking few steps back made him stop.

-Hey, are you… ok? Everything’s...- he asked, trying to sound as nice as possible, wanting to soothe her down. She said nothing, just raised her pipe in a sign of a warning, that made him go silent in middle of the question. They observed each other for a longer while in complete silence. Her blue eyes pierced him, making him feel small, stupid and guilty. Suddenly she pointed at the android with a shaky right hand and then quickly pointed to her right, at the horizon, not looking away from Wheatley even for a moment. He followed her hand and looked to his left. That was the direction from where he came, that’s where Aperture was.

“Go back”, “Leave”.

He looked at the lady with fear growing in his chest.

-You want me… to leave?- he asked, with a bit of hope that maybe that’s not what she meant, that maybe she wanted to say “Hey, there is a neat place you could stay at!”, but her slowly nodding made the last sparks of hope die.

-No no please, I, I can’t go back! Do you have any idea how much trouble it was to get out?! I barely died! Twice! Look, I got even shot! Oh, here!- he said and pulled his white shirt to show several holes on its back, left by bullets the turrets shot at him during his desperate break though. She looked at them with hesitation, but her expression didn’t change. Wheatley sighted, aware of how bad his situation was here. He was talking to someone that trusted him who he betrayed on first occasion. Hell, he even tried to kill her quite a numerous of times! 

-Listen, I...I was thinking a lot about… about everything in space and, and I really want to say something- he said and stood up slowly. The last thing Wheatley wanted was to make her run away again, even though he would catch up with her eventually, but it would make things even worse. The movement caused her to tense up even more, but luckily, she didn’t move a muscle. 

-I know it was… really stupid of me to, to do such things and that I was bossy, and monstrous and I almost killed you… more than once. I have no… no excuses for that- he said not looking at her. He just couldn’t gather the courage to do so.

-And some stuff I said weren’t the nicest, or at least part of these. Like, that you’re fat, which, which you are NOT. That’s false! Or that you have no parents, which I can’t say that is not true! I didn’t find any information. Not that I didn’t try, but seriously, it’s just as if you appeared outta blue and…- he shut up and looked at Chell, who seemed not less terrified, but more confused. Wheatley realised he started walking in circles while talking earlier, probably also waving his hands around like some sort of idiot. Scolding himself internally he sighted.

-Nevermind that, that’s not important right now. Look, what happened down there, it was far from even acceptable. I, I had quite some time to think about it, as I said and, and I really wanna tell you that I’m sorry- he finally spat it out. No apparent reaction only made him talk more.

-I mean it. Seriously. I’m sorry that you had to to through so much and that quite a big part was my fault. Sorry for telling you constantly about the, your brain damage. And all. And later that I, uh, tried to, you know, kill you. And sorry about the testing, most of the tests were really bad too- he admitted and smiled, knowing well he shouldn’t. It was just so stupid to think of at that moment. 

-Just… I’m really sorry, I was stupid of me, I was being a complete, uh, moron… So, let’s just put it all behind us, ok? No bad feelings?- he finally said. 

Again, no answer.

He looked at her, waiting for any sign that, maybe, hopefully, miraculously, with a bit of luck on his side, she accepted the worst apology he ever said. It was so stupid, the apologies he created in his head before were so much better. Why did he even mention all the bad stuff?! Not reminding anyone of these would be such a wise choice! But hell, what’s done is done, at least he said the magical two words, and not even once!   
The lady said nothing, just pinched the nose ridge with eyes closed. Suddenly she looked back at Wheatley and frowned, it sent shivers down his spine.

She pointed at him, then at herself and then shook her head.

Wheatley tilted his head to the right out of confusion.

-What?-

She groaned and just like earlier, she pointed at him and the horizon, in the direction of the Aperture. Wheatley didn’t say anything for few seconds, but then he took a step towards her, feeling a bit desperate. 

-I told you I can’t go back! I don’t even know where to go! Or where I am! We both know going back there is not an option, no, it would be a disaster! A catastrophe! Do you have any idea, any idea what kind of torture it was? And look at me! You at least knew how to use your own legs! And you had a portal gun!- he raised his voice and took one more step forward, to which she reacted by raising her “weapon” in a sign of warning. It made the android stop and cool down.

-Look I…sorry for that, again. I just, agh, don’t know what now! And it’s a pure coincidence, that you’re the first person I’ve stumbled upon ever since I got out- Wheatley ruffled his hair, some of the dust falling from it. 

Gross.

But at least now the lady lowered her pipe and was silently scanning him with her eyes, frowning. It felt as if he was under a fire of at least hundred turrets, and all the bullets reached him. Then she just sighed in resignation, or maybe annoyance? Whichever it was, Wheatley greeted happily any showcase of emotion that was not utter fury or fear. 

She suddenly turned around and walked forward, without a word. Wheatley jumped after her.

-Hey! What, will you leave me here like that?! Come o…- he got interrupted by the lunatic turning around and reaching out her hand in universal sign of “stop”, so he indeed, stopped. As soon as he was standing still, she started walking backwards until the distance between them was about 20 meters. Wheatley wasn’t sure, because of his vision being bad. Maybe something inside him was malfunctioning? It would explain the fact, that everything that was far away got blurred. He barely could tell the lady’s hair and face when she stopped, nodded and turned back. Wheatley observed as she reached into the bag and pulled out something he could barely see. After a longer while, she put the thing back into the bag and looked around. Only then she started walking, slightly turning right.

-So you want me to keep distance?! Oh ok, it would be much easier to, you know, say it! Out loud! Not that it isn’t impossible to understand, but y’know! Words are used for a reason!- he yelled so she could hear his objections to the idea, but she seemed not to care. So instead, android artificially sighted and started walking, looking at the blur of colors in front of him.

That went… well, considering how they parted their ways the last time they saw each other. But of course she had to be difficult! As always! Though there were no excuses to how he reacted back then, but still, why would you first hit someone with a metal pipe, then act as if it was no big deal, and then suggest going back to the facility? Telling to go away would be fair, he can admit that, especially after what they both went through, but telling to go back THERE? The nerve! Though then… she has her reasons, doesn’t she? It’s not him that got betrayed, cast down the “endless” pit, almost killed… Ok, he was close to being dead quite a few times, but it wasn’t her who tried to end his robotic life! Except, like, being let go to fly off into endless void of space, without any hopes of going back.

-Ughhhhhh- he groaned.

-This is madness. Hey!- he yelled again, but the lady showed no signs that she heard him. Maybe she didn’t, ot simply didn’t bother to give him any sign.

\- How long will we be walking!? I ain’t rushin’ you! Just curious! I fully trust you and that you know where we are in fact going!- 

Again, no signs of her hearing the question, which made Wheatley sigh in resignation, but what else could he do? Arguing wasn’t an option and he was lucky enough that she agreed for him to go along, so pushing his luck wouldn’t probably end well so he simply shut up, for now, because honestly there was a very small chance anything would change soon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sun was now setting low, painting the sky in warm colors. Yellow, orange and red were mixed together, along with purple and dark blue on the east. Rare clouds were also in magical colors, mostly pink. The wheat was now not yellow, but dark golden, making the whole scenery look even more magical. Anyone would appreciate the view if they saw it.

But aside from pretty, it was also soooooo boooooring. There was nothing new, not even a single rock that would enrich the vast plains of wheat. 

Nothing ever changed, everything was the same.

It’s been hours of walking, mostly in silence, which was driving Wheatley mad. After some point he simply started talking to noone in particular since the lunatic was far from willing for some friendly conversation. Also the distance between them, a big problem too. It is very hard to have any sort of friendly talk when there is a distance of 30 meters between people. 

He was about to yell again to ask how long will they be walking, when something caught his attention, to their right. A big white blur, surrounded by other, dark blurs. It was pretty far away, but surely it wouldn’t take long to walk there. And after a whole day of absolutely nothing, Wheatley was absolutely determined to get closer.

-Hey! Uh, there’s a thing! To your right! Something white!- he decided to announce his discovery. Lady theatrically put her hands on sides of her head, signaling that she doesn’t want to hear this and will ignore his observation. It made the android huff out of irritation.

-What!? We’ve been walking whole bloody day! And nothing happened! Do you even know where we are going?! - he asked. As a response, the lady stopped and hung her head down in resignation. Wheatley took the chance and came closer, despite her wishes. But there seemed no other options to talk to her, or at least, talk without yelling. And she didn’t react as badly as earlier to him approaching, but still looked at her pipe as a warning. 

-Listen, we are walking whole damn day, aren’t you tired? Plus, I can’t see well, for some reason. Don’t ask, I don’t know why, but I seriously can’t tell what it is- he said, and that information made lady’s eyebrows rise in surprise. She made an asking gesture regardless him saying he has no idea why it is like this.

-I just… it was like that ever since I got back, ok? No idea why, just gotta get used to it. But it doesn’t matter- he waved his hand, trying to change the topic.

\- What the hell will we lose? I doubt anything. So let’s just go check it out- he said, hitting a bit of a whiny tone in the end of the sentence, what made her cringe a bit. She reached into her bag again and, just like few hours earlier, she took out a thing, a compass. It looked really old, the gold-like shell was really damaged and the circular glass covering the needle was cracked. It had a thin, also golden chain attached on top of it. It surely used to be quite a fancy thing to own.

-Ooh! Where did you get this?- Wheatley asked and leaned closer to see the gizmo better. 

-You know I have one too? For some reason. Really. Why would an assist android have one, I have no idea. And, and I also have a clock here, too. I bet it would be really useful. Back when everything was running. But now its just useless- 

More little details that made her eyebrows rise yet again, but she quickly regained her neutral posture and looked at the sun. It was getting really close to the horizon, making the whole world a little darker. Nights tended to be warm, but it was foolish to walk around after sunset. 

With a sigh of resignation, the lady put the compass back into her bag and without a word headed towards the white blur in the distance. Wheatley followed her, full of enthusiasm.

-You’ll see, you won’t regret this! A quick action, in and out, not more than 30 minutes!- he exclaimed when suddenly shushed by the lady. She also gave him a sign to stay away, but this time she didn’t make him walk 20 meters away, which was a really nice change. So instead, he followed about 7 meters behind, really excited and relieved. Wheatley suspected that the thing they are heading towards is a house. And if it was a house, it would mean shelter, which would mean they won’t have to walk in the dark, which the android absolutely hated, even though he was doing it ever since he reached the surface. 

And as he suspected, it didn’t take them long to reach their destination, which turned out to indeed be a house. But it wasn’t some cottage like Wheatley expected. Instead, it was one massive mansion, surrounded by some neglected and very overgrown bushes that surely were very elegant back in the days when people lived here. The fence around it was now almost gone, most of it covered by a knee-reaching green grass, and the pathway leading towards the big entrance to the building was also barely visible. 

-Told you! Something interesting! Let’s go in maybe?- he said, while the lady was about to turn around and leave. Him suggesting entering the mansion was absurd and made her sigh loudly. Even if it didn’t seem like it, she was in fact in a hurry and the last thing she wanted was going on some abandoned house sightseeing. But sudden, literally metal grip on her arm made her freeze. 

-Hey, come on! It’s not like we have, have somewhere else to go, right? Why leave right now?- the words came to her like from far away, as if she was in the tunnel and they just bounced off the walls towards her. She also felt hot out of sudden and started slightly trembling. 

The hand let go.

-Hey are you… ok? You got really pale- she could barely hear the question and felt as if the ground turned into jelly. It was hard to stand. Then the ground disappeared completely and she could feel that she was falling. But before she hit the ground two hands grabbed her under her arms and prevented her from hitting the ground After few terrifying moments of not knowing where she is, the sound and her blurred vision slowly went back to normal.

-Hey! Hey are you ok!? Get up!- android’s panicking voice started reaching her again. She groaned in response and tried to push him away but barely managed to lift an arm. But, to her surprise, he slowly helped her to sit down and basically jumped away from her as soon as there was no threat of her falling down.  
It took another longer while to calm her pounding heart, during which the android stayed away as if the lady in front of him was an angry animal. Or a bomb that’s about to go off. But he said nothing, only watched. Finally, she got up, trembling, still pale.

-Listen I uh, I’m really really sorry about that, I, I didn’t think it through and just…. just… Are you ok?- he asked again, clearly distressed. She gave him a cold glare, but nodded when she looked at the mansion in front of them. Wheatley felt a relief, though not a big one.

See what you did?

-Well… but it seems like… walking at night isn’t an… option huh? After all that…- he cleared his throat and silently followed her inside. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. But seriously, it was the absolutely last thing she would want, aside from that moron following her everywhere. She’s had enough of him already. But yes, in the state she was currently in, they just had to stay in, at least for a while until she calms down fully.

The big, brown door was slightly open, the lock lied nearby. Probably some thieves entered the house, though it must’ve been a long time ago, because the ground around the lock was slightly covered in rust. Behind a door was a big hallway with stairs on both sides of it leading to upper floor. On the end of the hallway was a very big living room, with a chimney on the right side and an entrance to the kitchen on the left. The whole wall was covered with big windows that presented a view of a terribly neglected and overgrown garden. The whole room was white, or at least used to be, because the walls were covered in brown mold and marks of water that probably leaked through the ceiling from upstairs. The floor was also white, made of probably marble panels. It also was dirty as hell, covered with thick layer of dust, dirt and broken glass from the mentioned big windows. There was also an absolute mess. Parts of wall paint came off and was now scattered all over the place, the big bookcase was mostly rotten, just like the remains of the books that also lied everywhere. Some figurines stayed on top of the chimney, but they seemed as if they would turn into dust if you breathed in their direction. Sofa was broken in half, it’s legs spread in four directions, looking almost comical. There was also a big, probably once black and fluffy carpet that now looked like a dead animal. It even smelled like one. 

-Wow it’s, uh… Really cozy…- Wheatley pointed out, as he entered the room. Lady left him and entered the kitchen in hopes of finding some canned food that probably survived god knows how much time since this place has been abandoned. The kitchen was in the same state as the main room, it was dirty, cluttered and falling apart. Fridge door was visible outside the broken, wide window, in the grass, almost consumed by the plants. And nothing edible was inside the said fridge, only the remains of packages and containers of the food. Surprisingly though, a ceramic butter dish was not in a bad shape. After a moment of consideration, she put the dish into the bag, careful not to break it. Then she looked inside one of many cupboards attached to the ceiling and to her absolute glee, she found some metal cans with labels worn off. At the same time she reached for them, Wheatley entered the room, holding a small, grey box. It had smaller things attached to it via black cables.

-Found anything useful? Because it seems like I’ve found something similar to the… “”Playpal” was it? I don't know, but this thing has the same mark underside it- he said as he put the device on the table nearby and came closer to see what his companion found. 

-I bet it’s no more nourishing than the expulsion gel. And probably smells even worse- he pointed out. The only answer he got was a shrug, so he looked around the kitchen and laughed after seeing the fridge door outside.

-Who would’ve done this? And why? Just to be a nuisance?- he asked nobody in particular.

But the lady wasn’t paying any attention to anything else but the can she was holding. She pulled a simple knife out of the bag, put the can on the counter and stabbed the metal lid with it. The sound that came through the opening was far from encouraging, but she kept cutting the already weakened lid and exposed the contains of it to the world after God knows how long. 

The smell was absolutely disgusting and made her feel sick. She took few steps back to not be directly exposed to possibly toxic fumes. Wheatley did the same as soon as he saw that the can was opened.

-Why would you do that?! Do you want to poison yourself?! You’re mad!- He said when following her out of the kitchen. 

After some more exploring they went upstairs to see if there were some other interesting stuff. They passed the obvious door leading to the bathroom and opened the two-winged white door, somehow still intact. Behind them was a bedroom.

It probably used to be very elegant and comfortable, ideal for a married couple. It was big, and just like downstairs, the walls were white, just like the fitted carpet here used to be. It was now dark grey because of the dust and rot. On the right was a king-sized bed that surely would make it possible for four people to sleep in full comfort. Above it were a lot of photos hanged on the wall. They showed various people, two adults, three older people and two kids. There was also one bigger photo on the opposite wall, it showed a whole group of smiling people, some of them recognisable from the previous photos. All of these looked as if they were bleached, the colors almost completely gone, some were in such a state that it was impossible to tell what was on these. On the left was an entrance to another room, which turned out to be a closet.

Wheatley came closer to the bigger photo and looked at it, with his hand under his chin. People were wearing elegant clothes, in the background there was a lot of trees and bushes. The all looked so happy, especially the pair in middle, holding hands. To the right of the photo was another one, smaller, on which were two kids, smiling. One was clearly older.

-I wonder… What happened?- Wheatley asked.

-Where are these people? Why did they leave their home? And all those cars back on the road?- he turned towards the lady, who was looking through the cabinet. She barely glanced at the android and shrugged. 

-Did you know about this place? Have you been here?- he asked again and received the same answer.

-Ok uh… Nice talking to you, as always- he said and it seemed like as if the lady was about to hit him with the pipe again when they froze suddenly.

-Chell?! Is that you?!-

They both looked at the door leading to the stairs and then at each other.

Someone was here.

Without a word lady suddenly grabbed Wheatley’s shirt and dragged him into the closet. She put her finger on her lips, telling him to shut the hell up, what he did without a protest. Then she pointed at the clothes laying around on the shelves and hanging on the coat hangers, then on his shirt.

“Change your clothes.”

Wheatley nodded, and then without a moment of hesitation the lady… Chell? Left the closet and clapped twice. They heard a laugh from downstairs. 

-You scared me! For a moment I thought it was someone else in here and that I would never see the light of day! Where are you?- the person asked, their steps getting closer. Before Wheatley could do anything, Chell left the room and from what he could hear, went downstairs.

-Ok ok ok… Fashion time. What do we have here? Aside from rotting rags?- He whispered to himself and went towards the shirts hanging on his right, when suddenly, something flashed to his left. Taking a step back, Wheatley faced someone he never saw before. Just like him, the person took a step back in shock.

A mirror.

For the first time since he got back from space, Wheatley saw his face.

He took a step closer to see better.

First thing that he noticed were his eyes. The whole face was in fact very plain, as if it was intended to be as user-friendly as possible (though he would say that his nose was a bit too long to be considered average), but the eyes were far from human-like. They were black, and instead of iris and pupil he had a big blue circles that turned white near the center. Honestly, they looked just like the “core” thing in the middle of his chest, and his previous optic. Also, two slightly sunken black lines went from under and above the eyes, along the whole face, as if dividing it into three parts. On both cheeks Wheatley also had three black buttons, but he had no idea what they were for, there was no information about them in his system. The whole face looks surprisingly human, aside of the eyes and other small details, obviously. He slowly touched his cheek with his black metal finger and with surprise watched how it slightly shifted, just like normal human skin does under pressure. Just like he expected, it was made out of soft, rubber-like material that imitated skin, which genuinely creeped the android out. His hair also was supposed to make him look harmless and friendly. Blonde, rather short, but not a crew cut and straight, simply the first type of hairstyle when you think of someone working at the office.

-Listen, we should be going soon, I’d love to get there before it gets completely dark- the unknown voice brought Wheatley back to reality and made him jump. Right, he must change into something less… Standing out. No normal person would wear the clothes he currently had on, no way in the world. He looked around and came closer to the shelf with shirts that weren’t in completely terrible state. Some even still had buttons intact! 

-Ah, perfect!- Wheatley said to himself and reached for one.

Nobody will suspect a thing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They kept running, not in the most graceful way, but running. And there was a good reason for that.

-And do you seriously think I will allow you escape? After all the damage you caused? You won’t get out, it is my promise- the omnipresent voice boomed through the halls of Aperture. It’s cold tone made him shudder, but he kept running, just like the others. Most of them already had split up, but he stayed with these two, for some reason. Maybe because they seemed familiar? Or it was pure coincidence. 

-Come on! We’re close!- one yelled, trying to shout over the noise of machinery shifting behind the panelled walls and gunshots of turrets behind them. He could feel few bullets hitting him in the back, but they all tried to ignore the pain. They had to keep running.

At some point one of them, the taller, more lanky one stopped by the group of coat hangers and lockers, probably used by staff when the Aperture was still filled with humans. He had to be literally grabbed by the back of his shirt and pulled by second one, slightly shorter but way more bulkier. 

-Come on now, there’s no time for that!- He yelled at the one he dragged, who held onto an old and torn lab coat as if it was a source of his life. 

He didn’t pay much attention to them, only kept going, though these two quickly caught up with him. They could see the sign telling them that the emergency exit is close.

-Hey, pipsqueak! Better hurry up if you don’t want to end up in space again!- the bulky one yelled as he passed him. 

-Of course I don’t want to- he muttered and tried to run even faster, especially that he could feel the panels shifting under his feet.

They could see the door in front of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry for taking so long! Also it was my first time describing a panic attack so if it's not right, I apologise!! It's a whole new territory! And in case the describtion of how wheatley looks like isn't the best, you can visit my tumblr (https://craske.tumblr.com/tagged/android). I'll try to write the next chapter sooner I promise ;;


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